CHARLESTON, S.C.
Western Carolina, the No. 6 seed, pulled off the first upset in the Southern Conference Baseball Tournament yesterday, rolling past No. 3 Georgia Southern 11-4.
In other first-round games, No. 2 College of Charleston outlasted Appalachian State 12-11 in 11 innings, and The Citadel, the top seed, got past No. 8 Furman 9-5. No. 4 Elon played No. 5 Samford in last night's late game.
Every player for Western Carolina had at least one hit in the win over Georgia Southern. Outfielder Dylan de Graaf led the Catamounts (35-19-1), going 3 for 4 with three RBIs and two runs.
Designated hitter Matt Johns had two hits, two RBIs and also scored twice. Second baseman Ross Heffley and catcher Ollie Goulder each added two hits.
First baseman Kyle Blackburn went 4 for 5 with two RBIs for the Eagles (34-23).
Matt Benedict (9-1) picked up the win for WCU, allowing two earned runs on 10 hits in 72/3 innings. He struck out seven batters. Jake Brown (7-6) took the loss, giving up eight runs, six of which were earned, on eight hits. He struck out two.
College of Charleston scored two runs in the bottom of the 11th inning to deal Appalachian State baseball a tough loss in the opening game.
Appalachian (35-17-1) came back from a 7-2 deficit to take leads of 8-7, 10-8 and 11-10 but was unable to hold on. The Mountaineers rallied for three runs in the top of the sixth and three in the top of the seventh to take an 8-7 lead.
After the Cougars scored an unearned run to tiet the score at 8-8 in the bottom of the seventh, Appalachian took a 10-8 advantage on back-to-back RBI singles by David Towarnicky and Jeremy Dowdy in the top of the eighth.
ASU's two-run lead remained intact until the bottom of the ninth. College of Charleston pinch-hitter Justin Brewer sliced the two-run advantage in half when he led off the bottom of the ninth with a solo home run and four batters later, Cole Rakar's RBI single sent the game to extra innings.
The game went to the 11th, where the Mountaineers took another lead, this time on freshman Hector Crespo's RBI double that made it 11-10.
However, Charleston (42-15) rallied again in the bottom of the 11th. Aided by an error by Towarnicky, the Cougars scored twice, capped by the winning, unearned run on an RBI single to right field by Rob Kral.
Crespo led Appalachian offensively, going 4 for 7 with a double, home run and three RBI. Jose Rodriguez went 4 for 5 to pace the Cougars.
The Citadel broke a 4-4 tie with a four-run seventh in its win over Furman. Kyle Jordan's two-run double was the key hit in the rally. Justin Mackert went 2 for 3 with 3 RBIs for the Bulldogs (39-20), and teammate Bryan Altman went 2 for 4 and drove in two.
Brian Harrison went 3 for 4 to lead Furman (19-36).
WCU will take on College of Charleston today at 5 p.m. in the winner's bracket. GSU will play seed Appalachian State in the loser's bracket. The Elon-Samford winner will play The Citadel at 9 p.m., and the Elon-Samford loser will take on Furman at 1 p.m.
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