Ninth-Ranked Bulldogs Bite Cavs Baseball

March 31, 2007
Game 1 Boxscore

Game 2 Boxscore

Athens, TN – The ninth-ranked Tennessee Wesleyan baseball team took a bite out of UVA-Wise on Saturday afternoon in sweeping a twinbill, 17-3 in seven innings and 12-5, on a day where there were a combined 11 home runs hit.

The Bulldogs continued their Appalachian Athletic Conference dominance as the 9 th-ranked and five-time defending league champions improved to 10-0 and 27-10 overall. UVA-Wise dropped to 7-3 in the AAC and 18-7-1 on the year.

The Highland Cavaliers accounted for six of the 11 round-trippers hit in the doubleheader. Josh Verts (Winchester, VA) added to his astounding home run total to make it eight on the year with two in the opener and another in the late contest while having a single for a three-hit day. Brad Robbins (Big Stone Gap, VA) continued his hot hitting with four hits, three extra base hits, with solo homers, four now on the year, in both games along with a triple in the second game and three for three effort.

Jorge Laboy (Woodbridge, VA) and John Bigley (Woodbridge, VA), who had two total hits, added solo shots in the second affair. Brock Funk (Fries, VA), Edwin Narvaez (Morovis, PR) and Mike Lang (Fredericksburg, VA) had singles.

The home team took advantage of six Cavs errors and plated runs in each of the first five innings on the way to taking the opener in seven innings. Tennessee Wesleyan had three runs in the first, third and fifth while having five more in the sixth. Jered Stanley had a monster game with three home runs of his own including a grand slam in the sixth inning.

UVA-Wise received a solo homer from Verts in the second before he and Robbins had solo round-trippers in the sixth for the only runs in the contest to fall 17-3.

Verts suffered his first defeat throwing the first three innings before Funk pitched the final three frames.

The Cavs’ foutunes did not change much in the second game as their fielding stayed the same as well. The visitors held Tennessee Wesleyan scoreless in three trips to the plate of its six but committed four costly errors.

The Bulldogs pushed across two tallies in the second before exploding for seven in the third off David Jones (Amelia, VA), who lost his first decision and is 6-1. Seven of the home nine runs in the first three innings were unearned.

In the top of the fourth, Verts, Bigley and Robbins belted back-to-back-to-back home runs to cut it to 9-3. The score remained there until Laboy added his own solo home run of two in the trip to make it 9-5 in the sixth. The Bulldogs added three scores in the bottom of the sixth for what would be the 12-5 final.

UVA-Wise will play at Pikeville during next week on a day to be determined before trekking to Montreat College for its next AAC twinbill on Saturday, April 7 th starting at 12:00 p.m.