Braves Keep Stacking Wins in 3-0 Sweep of Anderson in Weekend Series
The UNCP baseball team continued to keep their newfound winning ways going strong as they increased their impressive win streak to five-straight with a heavy conference schedule ahead after sweeping the Trojans of Anderson University in a weekend series on Mar.16/17. They hit the road to Memorial Stadium in Anderson, S.C. and built upon their swelling momentum with a trio of dominating victories that produced two shutouts and featured fantastic pitching and explosive offense. Game 1: Senior right-handed pitcher Nile Ball was lights out on the mound for the Braves through the first five innings as he held the hosting Trojans scoreless and the team racked up a season-high 21 hits in their 11-4 victory in the opening game of the series. The Braves would start off red hot in the first frame as they recorded the first four runs of the game off of an RBI double from Connor Grainger and a trio of RBI singles from Elijah Helton, Bobby Dixon, and River Ryan. Game 2: Sophomore left-handed pitcher Laden Smith would follow the example that Ball set in the first game of the day with a sensational performance on the mound of his own for the Braves as he would lead the charge for the team to secure an 8-0 shutout and complete the day one doubleheader. Their most productive offensive inning came in the fourth frame where Dixon churned out an infield single to kick off the inning. The Black and Gold would go to put a pair of runners on base following a two-out single from Trevor Clemons to set the stage for a three-run dinger from Ethan Baucom. Game 3: Just when it seemed as if things couldn’t get any better for the Braves in this weekend matchup, they happened to save their best performance for last as they smothered the hosting Trojans early on in game three to secure a 13-0 victory. They would receive yet another outstanding pitching performance, this time from Tanner Routh and would score all of their runs in the first four frames of the contest. Their best inning came in the third where they piled up eights runs thanks to four different Braves recording at least one RBI in the frame, that included a grand slam over left field from Baucom.
