College baseball: Catawba’s streak stopped; Indians play two vs. L-R Saturday

Published 2:53 am Saturday, March 7, 2020

 Staff report

SALISBURY — Catawba’s winning streak ended at 15 games on Friday night with a 4-2 loss to South Atlantic Conference rival Lenoir-Rhyne at Newman Park.

L-R pitcher John Grigg pitched seven strong innings.

Lenoir-Rhyne (11-9, 4-3) scored first. Jeremy Simpson tied the game for the Indians with a run-scoring double in the bottom of the second.

With Catawba (15-3, 6-1) down 2-1, Simpson’s run-scoring groundout in the fourth made it 2-all.

Xander Ferlenda’s two-run homer in the fifth gave the visitors a 4-2 lead that held up.

Catawba had chances in the seventh and eighth — getting a runner to third in the seventh and loading the bases in the eighth — but couldn’t get the key hit.

Greg Brown (2-2) pitched five innings and took the loss. Sawyer Strickland and DJ Laxton kept the deficit at 4-2 the rest of the way, but the Indians couldn’t come back.

 Simpson, Joe Butts and Cameron Morrison had two hits each.
Catawba is still in first place in the SAC.
 The teams play a doubleheader at Newman Park on Saturday, starting at 4 p.m.