College baseball: Catawba sweeps Newberry

By Mike London

mlondon@salisburypost.com

Charlie Beatty holds the Catawba season record for batting average for players who had 100 or more at-bats. He swatted .504 in 1984.

Beatty's name came up Sunday at Newman Park because Catawba senior Wade Moore is sizzling. Moore was 5-for-7 in a marathon doubleheader sweep of Newberry to lift his average to .481.

Moore could go hitless in his next 22 at-bats and still be at .400. He's been that good.

Hitting .481 29 games into a college season is amazing, but no one's ever accused Moore of being ordinary. A hot recruit coming out of West Rowan in 2006, Moore spent three part-time seasons at N.C. State before transferring to Catawba.

Pro scouts wanted to see some numbers. They're seeing them.

Moore puts on eerie shows in batting practice and it usually continues in the games. He's teamed with senior infielder Craige Lyerly (.438) and freshman Garrett Furr (.420) to give the Indians a devastating offense.

"Coming back home has been a blessing," Moore said. "I'm having fun, and I feel like I'm getting better every single day as a baseball player. I really couldn't ask for more."

Catawba committed six errors but survived an ugly 16-9 contest in the opener, then did everything right in the nightcap to romp 23-3.

Veteran Nathan Furr (5-0) pitched better than it sounds in the first game, and freshman Nick Lomascolo (3-2) was in total command in the nightcap for five innings.

"Nick had it going today, and he easily could've finished it," Catawba coach Jim Gantt said.

Moore had the key hit of the opener, a three-run laser over the wall in right-center in the second to break a 1-1 tie.

A two-out error and No. 9 hitter Corey Parker's all-out hustle on a swinging bunt gave Moore a chance to hit, and he delivered. He rifled a 2-2 pitch in the general direction of Cooleemee.

"I felt like I had a really good approach today and stayed true to it," Moore said. On the homer, I got a pitch I could handle — a mistake. That's a key to hitting. Don't miss the mistakes."

After that swing, just about every plate appearance by Moore created a Newberry conference and a pitching change, but he went 3-for-3 in the nightcap before Gantt gave him the rest of the night off. While he was in center field, he made a big-league diving catch in the gap to rob a second-inning double.

"Our pitcher (Lomascolo) was throwing strikes, working hard, and when a guy is doing that, you want to make a play for him," Moore said.

Despite a potent offense, Catawba (22-7, 9-6) is fifth in the SAC. The Indians have won four of five series — three on the road — but they lost three straight to Mars Hill in two disastrous days (March 5-6).

"We can play so good at times," Gantt said. "But there also have been times we aren't able to catch it, and I can't explain it. If we can just eliminate the poor games, we've still got a chance to win the conference, but getting swept almost kills ya."

Moore was Catawba's second-best hitting center fielder on Sunday. Freshman Ethan Satterfield got his third and fourth at-bats of the season and launched two homers, including a grand slam.

Pinch-hitter Brett Hatley, John Neese and Corey Parker also homered in the nightcap as Newberry (11-17, 1-11) auditioned pitchers.

Catawba had 40 hits in the twin bill. Furr and Zeb Link (.336) enjoyed five-hit days. Lyerly scored five runs and extended his streak of reaching base to 64 straight games. Brett Huffman went 3-for-4. Ryan Bostian was 3-for-7. Josh Hohn homered in the opener.

"We had a good opportunity and we got a sweep when we couldn't afford anything less," Moore said. "We've dropped some we should've won, so if we were going to get back into it, it had to start today."

Catawba owns the league's best overall record and won a series with first-place Carson-Newman, so there's still hope with nine SAC games left. There are two races to follow now — Catawba's chase of the SAC leaders, and Moore's pursuit of .500.

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NOTES: The SAC tournament is April 22-25 in Forest City. Moore starred for Forest City's wood bat team last summer that was ranked No. 1 nationally.