Senior David Carbonell picked up the save in SAPC’s upset win over the 2008 National Champions.
All nine Knights batters had hits and freshman starter Kyle Tate earned his first collegiate win on the mound as SAPC improves to 6-23-1 overall and 5-12 in the league after winning its second straight conference series. Mount Olive still boasts a 26-3 overall and 12-3 league ledgers.
“I was extremely pleased with the way our guys played throughout the entire weekend,” said SAPC third year head coach Keith Williams. “They were able to take yesterday’s win and build on it today. The team showed great character to win a conference series against a strong Mount Olive team. The guys have shown great resiliency on staying the course despite the tough early part of the season.”
Tate (1-5) went six strong innings against a dangerous Trojans lineup that bats over .400 as a team, scattering seven hits and allowing four runs. Senior David Carbonell, who just picked a win in the series opener on Saturday, successfully toed the rubber for the final three innings to earn the unconventional save. Carbonell (5) and Tate (4) combined for nine strikeouts.
Coach Williams added, “Today, Kyle [Tate] was outstanding on the mound and offensively our guys came swinging the bats this weekend. Also, David Carbonell gave us an excellent performance on the mound on both Saturday and Sunday.”
SAPC teed off six Mount Olive pitchers for 20 on 17 hits, which are both season-high totals. The Knights also played error-free defense for only the third time this season (all wins).
Oliver was 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI-singles, a two-run homer, a sacrifice fly, three runs scored, and a walk. Oliver’s two-run blast in the fifth inning was his second round-tripper of the season.
Senior Samson Williams knocked in three Knights runs and rounded the bases three times, including a two-run double in the second that extended his current hit streak to 15 games. Sophomore Michael Ficarro and freshman Adrian Rivera both had two hits and two RBI. Sophomore Ethan Powell added three singles and three runs scored.
Mount Olive held a 1-0 lead in the first after senior Bobby Leeper led off the game with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly by senior Jeremy Nowak.
St. Andrews responded with four runs in the home half of the first and five more runs in the second to take control, 9-1. Oliver and Powell both had singles in each of the first two frames.
SAPC continued to lead, 14-3, with three runs in the fifth and two in the sixth before Mount Olive attempted a late comeback. Sophomore Daniel Coffey sparked five consecutive Trojans runs that trimmed the deficit to 14-8 with a pair of home runs in his only two plate appearances. Coffee led off the seventh with a solo shot and then added a two-run dinger in the four-run eighth.
The Knights bats did not slow down when the rain came in the eighth inning, pulling away for good with six final runs in the bottom of the eighth. The outburst featured run-producing doubles by Rivera and senior Charles Weber.
Mount Olive had 14 hits with six different Trojans hitting safely twice. Coffey had a team-high three RBI with his fifth and sixth home runs of the season. Nowak provided a solo homer in the fourth, his 13th long ball of the season, and has hit safely in all 29 MOC games. Junior starter Curtis Hudson was a perfect 4-0 in four starts this season, but was tagged with his first loss after getting ripped for seven runs in just one-plus inning of work.
St. Andrews next travels to Saint Augustine’s College for a non-conference doubleheader today (1:00 PM) at the Team USA Baseball Training Complex in Cary, N.C. Mount Olive returns home for a Southeast Region showdown against Armstrong Atlantic State University tonight at 7 p.m.
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