CLINTON, S.C. – Charleston Southern continued their dominant run through Big South play on Sunday at Presbyterian as they defeated the Blue Hose by a final score of 6-4, needing extra innings to do so. The victory moves the Buccaneers to 10-8 in league play, winners of 10 of their past 12 Big South matchups and have claimed each of their past four conference weekend series.
Each of the two teams were able to get early offense by scoring three in the first inning. The Buccaneers were able to get on the board with
AJ Martin driving a double to left field to score
Kain Collins.
Aidan McAskie then had a single through the left side that scored Martin and
Kaden Smith for the early 3-0 lead. The Blue Hose responded with a three-run home run in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game at three apiece.
The teams then went on to trade 0s for the next six innings with three different pitchers from each squad contributing to this stretch.
In the eighth, both squads tallied their fourth run of the day with each coming off a sacrifice flyout. For the Bucs' Smith was responsible for scoring
Lew Rice on the play.
The game needed extra innings to determine its victor. In the eleventh, the Bucs were able to break through. McAskie laid down a sacrifice bunt with runners on first and third and was able to score
Tyler Wright, who was pinch running for Smith. During the next at bat,
Nathan Martinez singled up the middle and scored Martin to push the score to 6-4. In the PC half of the inning, they were retired in order to give the Bucs the win.
Charleston Southern used four pitchers in the contest and had a tremendous day from each of them.
Tait Robertson had the start and threw 4.1 innings, allowing the three runs.
Ryan DuSang was first out of the bullpen and tossed an inning and two thirds, allowing just one base runner off a hit by pitch.
Tyler Henshaw went on to throw the next 4.0 and received the win to move to 6-1. He allowed two hits to go with one earned run.
Kyle Lewis was the final used and earned his third save of the year, retiring all three batters faced.
At the plate, Collins led the team with two hits as they collected eight as a team. Additionally, they drew seven walks and three hit by pitches with Rice drawing three walks and Edgmon getting hit by a pair of pitches. McAskie led the Bucs with three RBIs with Smith, Martin and Martinez each adding one.
The Buccaneers are back in action this Tuesday, April 29 as they will take on South Carolina with the first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Founders Park in Columbia, S.C. The game will be available to be watched live on SECN+. The game will mark their final contest ahead of the school's exam break which will mark nine consecutive days without a game.
