Highland Cavaliers Split Two Extra Innings Baseball Games with King

March 3, 2007
Game 1 Boxscore

Game 2 Boxscore

Bristol, TN – UVA-Wise and King College played an extra half game Saturday as the twinbill went extra frames in both contests. Mike Torrence lined a single to left field to give host King a 2-1 victory in 12 innings before UVA-Wise’s Josh Verts belted a two out solo homer to a 3-2 eight inning victory in the late game.

Both squads start their Appalachian Athletic Conference seasons at 1-1. UVA-Wise is 7-2-1 on the year while King is 7-3.

Jorge Laboy (Woodbridge, VA) and Verts (Winchester, VA) both pounded out four hits for the Highland Cavaliers. Laboy’s hits were all singles while Verts had the power bat with two doubles, a home run and an rbi. Edwin Narvaez added three hits. Matt Hall (Hillsville, VA) went two for four in the night cap. Andrew Anderson (Richmond, VA) and John Bigley (Woodbridge, VA) had hits in both contests.

King’s Joe Craven sliced a double to score the first run of the day in the bottom of the third. Anderson and Bigley singled and Jeremy Wright ( Bristol, VA) walked to load the bases in the top of the fourth. Alan Stoupa (McLean, VA) ground into a double play to tie the game, 1-1, with Anderson crossing the plate.

The game would remain 1-1 for over the next seven innings. The Cavs could not take advantage of a leadoff double by Verts in the top of the sixth and back-to-back two out hits in the seventh, eighth and ninth frames. With two outs in the top of the 12 th, Verts belted his second two-bagger but was once again stranded.

In the bottom of the 12 th, the leadoff batter was hit by a pitch and sacrificed to second. The next Tornado batter reached on a Cavs’ error and ensuing hitter was walked to load the bases. Torrence lined a hit to left to plate the winning score for the 2-1 win in 12 innings. Brandon Wallace picked up the win for King while Brock Funk (Fries, VA) went the final seven innings, allowing five hits to suffer the loss.

King scored first in the second affair with an unearned tally in the bottom of the second. With two outs, Hall singled and moved to second on a passed ball before tying the contest when Laboy singled him in for UVA-Wise.

In the top of the fourth, Bigley doubled and Anderson singled before Brad Austin (Hillsville, VA) had a run scoring fielder’s choice. King tied the game in the bottom of the sixth, 2-2. Verts blasted his fourth homer in 10 games with two outs for what would be the game-winner to win 3-2 in eight innings.

David Jones (Amelia, VA) pitched all eight innings for the Cavs to improve to 3-0. Jones fanned 10 Tornados while giving up one earned run, four hits and walked two.

UVA-Wise will have its home opener on Tuesday afternoon when it hosts Southern Virginia in a pair of games starting at 1:00 p.m. at Stallard Field.

Game 1
UVA 0-0-0 1-0-0 0-0-0 0-0-0 1-13-4
KC 0-0-1 0-0-0 0-0-0 0-0-1 2-8-2
WP: Brandon Wallace C-Craig Cant
LP: Brock Funk (1-1) C-Alan Stoupa
2B: Craven (KC), Verts (UVA) 2

Game 2
UVA 0-0-1 1-0-0 0-1 3-7-1
KC 0-1-0 0-0-1 0-0 2-4-2
WP: David Jones (3-0) C-Matt Hall
LP: Jace Smith C-Matt Morris
2B: John Bigley (UVA)
HR: Verts (UVA)