College baseball: Catawba wins regional opener
Published 12:00 am Thursday, May 14, 2009
Staff report
Catawba’s Craige Lyerly didn’t waste any time tying the school record for hitting streaks.
Lyerly singled on an 0-1 pitch to begin Thursday’s Southeast Regional game against Georgia College & State University in Aiken, S.C. The hit gave Lyerly a 33-game hitting streak and tied the school record set by Earl Lentz in 1955-56.
Lyerly went 3-for-6 to spark Catawba to a 7-5 victory. He has 104 hits this season, breaking the Catawba and SAC single-season records. Lyerly, a junior third baseman from East Rowan, leads Division II in hits. He entered Thursday’s game tied with Augusta State’s Shannon Wilkerson.
Catawba, ranked 21st nationally, led 2-0 after the first inning. Brett Hatley (West Rowan) followed Lyerly’s leadoff single with a double, and Ryan Query (A.L. Brown) and Chris Ahearn knocked in runs to stake starting pitcher Tim Holmes (7-2) to a quick 2-0 lead.
Query doubled home a run in the second. Lyerly scored on an error in the fourth for a 4-0 lead.
Kevin McMillan (North Rowan) had an RBI double in the fifth. Lyerly scored on a wild pitch in the sixth for a 6-3 lead.
Cameron White knocked in Josh Hohn in the ninth to make it 7-5.
Holmes pitched into the seventh inning before getting relief help from Wil Huneycutt.
Huneycutt got a double-play ball to get Catawba out of a jam. Nathan Furr nailed down the last four outs for his eighth save.
Catawba had 16 hits in the win, with Hatley and Ahearn joining Lyerly with three. Query and Hohn had two hits each.
No. 4 seed Catawba (36-16) plays No. 2 seed Francis Marion (37-18) tonight at 7 p.m. in the double-elimination event. Francis Marion beat Tusculum 5-0.
With Blake Ketner out with a broken finger on his right hand, Catawba will send either Alex Fairweather or Trevor Mullins to the mound.