April 2, 2007
The SU baseball team closed out a good weekend of Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play in Sherman, TX by splitting a pair of games with the Austin College Kangaroos on Sunday (Apr. 1).
Austin 3, Southwestern 1
The Pirates fell behind 1-0 to the Roos in the bottom of the fourth inning when Scott Rogers (Flower Mound, TX/Marcus HS) allowed a leadoff home run to Scott Cottingham. Southwestern got on the board in the top of the sixth without recording a hit. AC made two errors in the inning that allowed first-year John Wooten (Columbus, TX/Columbus HS) to score on a ground ball that was booted by the third baseman.
In the bottom of the sixth, Austin pulled ahead after a leadoff single that led to relief pitcher Matt Gruetzner (Bastrop, TX/Bastrop HS) entering the game and giving up a two-run home run, putting the Roos ahead 3-1.
Rogers suffered the loss for the Pirates and his record for the year falls to 1-6. He lasted five innings and allowed five hits. The junior gave up two earned runs while striking out six and walking two. Wooten and senior Jamie Herrmann (Houston, TX/Westside HS) were the only to SU players to collect hits in the game.
Southwestern 12, Austin 6
In the series finale, the Pirates put up a four-spot on the Roos in the fourth inning. The inning was highlighted by a two-run double from Eric Gonzales (Austin, TX/Bowie HS), an RBI single from Wooten and Brad Culling (Albuquerque, NM/St. Pius HS) scoring on a wild pitch. Austin College got a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 4-2.
SU extended its lead to 5-2 with two straight doubles from Ryan Bellomy (Dallas, TX/Jesuit HS) and Michael Murphy (Houston, TX/Austin HS) to lead off the fifth inning. The Kangaroos got another run in the sixth thanks to two walks and a single.
The Pirates blew the game open in the seventh when Herrmann and first-year Matt Clark (Spring, TX/Klein HS) both collected two-RBI singles, moving the score to 9-3. In the eighth, Culling hit his second home run of the weekend, scoring three runs and pushing Southwestern's lead to 12-3. Austin managed to score three in the bottom of the ninth to pull within six as the game ended 12-6.
Culling finished the game 2-4 with three runs batted in and three runs scored. Herrmann was 3-6, scored twice and drove in two runs. Bellomy scored three runs for the Bucs.
The win went to Gruetzner, who is now 1-1. He went four innings and gave up three runs, one of them earned. He scattered six hits, struck out four and walked just one.
The Pirates conference record is currently even at 4-4 while their season record moves to 12-19. Austin is 6-6 in the SCAC and 14-17 overall. Southwestern's next game is on Thursday (Apr. 5) in Conway, AR as the Pirates begin a four game series against the Hendrix College Warriors at 2:30 p.m.
SU Sports Information