April 1, 2007
The Southwestern University baseball team won both games of a doubleheader with Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference foe Austin College on Saturday (Mar. 31) afternoon in Sherman, TX.
Southwestern 11, Austin 4
The Pirates struck in the first inning with a pair of runs on a bases loaded walk and a Brad Culling (Albuquerque, NM/St. Pius HS) single. The Roos answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the first on two hits to make the score 2-1.
SU went off in the third with RBI singles from Culling and Jamie Herrmann (Houston, TX/Westside HS) before sophomore Mark Noggle (Houston, TX/Clear Lake HS) hit a grand slam with one out. Two batters later, first-year John Wooten (Columbus, TX/Columbus HS) hit his second home run of the season to five the Pirates seven runs in the inning and a 9-1 lead in the game. Austin added a single run in the bottom of the inning, making it 9-2.
Culling hit his first homer of the season in the fourth for 10 runs. Southwestern's lead was cut to 10-3 as the Roos scored on a wild pitch in the bottom half of the fourth. AC added one more run in the sixth off SU starting pitcher Andy Morrison (Austin, TX/Connally HS) for a total of four. The Pirates tacked on one final run in the seventh thanks to a second Noggle home run, the fourth of the game for Southwestern.
Noggle finished the game 2-4 with five runs batted in and two runs scored. He now has two home runs on the season. Culling collected three hits in four at bats, scoring twice and driving in three. Wooten, Richard Falcone (Houston, TX/Westside HS) and Ryan Bellomy (Dallas, TX/Jesuit HS)all had two hits for SU.
Morrison went the distance, allowing four earned runs on nine hits over seven innings of work. The senior right-hander struck out five and walked four in pushing his record to 4-4.
Southwestern 6, Austin 4
The Pirates again scored first in game two as Wooten and Falcone both drew walks to lead off the inning. Sophomore Michael Murphy (Houston, TX/Austin HS) then hit a two-run triple with one out to give SU a 2-0 lead. The Pirates got single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings thanks to a Noggle RBI ground out, a pair of Austin errors in the fifth and a sacrifice fly from Wooten to take a 5-0 lead through six and a half innings.
The Roos finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth. Southwestern then scored in the fifth straight inning when Noggle hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh, putting the Pirates up 6-1. AC scored twice in the seventh and then got a solo home run in the eighth to pull within two for the final score of 6-4.
Sophomore Wes Willis (Austin, TX/Austin HS) picked up his first victory of the season with 6.1 innings pitched in the game. He gave up three runs, two earned, on five hits while striking out six and walking none. He is now 1-4 on the year. First-year Austin Alvis (Houston, TX/Houston Christian HS) gave up one earned run in 2.2 innings of relief work for his second save of the season.
Herrmann was the only Buc to record multiple hits, going 2-4 with one double and two runs scored. Murphy and Noggle both recorded a pair of RBI for the Pirates.
Southwestern improved to 11-18 overall, 3-3 in SCAC play while the Kangaroos fall to 13-16, 5-5.
The two teams will play another doubleheader on Sunday (Apr. 1) with game one beginning at 1:00 p.m.
SU Sports Information