CLEVELAND, Miss. – Delta State University pitching dominated the Lee University hitters in handing the Flames a pair of GSC baseball defeats on Ferriss Field on Friday afternoon in the conference openers for both teams. The Statesmen claimed the first game 6-0 and then blanked Lee in the nightcap 3-0.
The two teams will close out the three-game series on Saturday afternoon. A single nine-inning game is scheduled for 2 p.m. (EST). The two defeats dropped the Flames to 5-4 overall while Delta State improved to 6-3.
Game 1 – Delta State 6, Lee 0
Drake Fontenot (2-0) worked the first seven innings and picked up his second win of the year while Logan Cromer came on to shut out the Flames in the final two frames. Fontenot scattered eight hits, struck out 11 and did not walk a Lee hitter. Cromer surrendered only one hit over his two innings. He fanned two and also did not allow a free pass.
Will Baker (1-2) was charged with the pitching defeat. He hurled 4.1 innings, allowing seven hits and five earned runs. Baker recorded four strikeouts and issued one free pass. Nelson Smith gave the Flames 3.2 innings of solid relief work. The big right-hander gave up four hits, one earned run, but put seven strikeouts on the board and walked one.
The bottom of the Statesmen lineup did key damage in the win. No. 7 hitter Peyton Babon banged out three hits, posted a RBI and scored once. Teammate Braiden Jones batted in the sixth hole and ripped a double, singled, drove in two scores and tallied another. Drew Capobianco rounded out the bottom of the order list with a hit, RBI and a run scored. Not to be outdone, Wes Warnock picked up the slack as the No. 2 hitter. He contributed two hits and drove in a score.
The Flames finished with nine hits but could not come up with the big knocks in the loss. The top two, three and four hitters had six of the nine hits. Cooper Doughman led the way with three. Isaiah French banged out a pair and Luke Collier collected one. Ashton Simmons tried to get things going at the bottom of the order with two solid hits while Tucker Platt collected Lee's only extra base hit, a double. Flame hitters struck out 13 times and there were nine runners left on base.
Game 2 – Delta State 3, Lee 0
Lee pitchers Dylan Van Meeteren (1-2) and Colt McKibben did their part in holding the Statesmen to five hits in the nightcap. Van Meeteren surrendered four hits and three earned runs over 3.2 innings. He fanned five and walked three. McKibben was even better. Over 2.1 frames, the lefty gave up just one hit and walked one.
Delta State used a pair of hurlers to shut out the Flames for the second straight game. Dylan Farley (2-1) pitched six innings and allowed three hits in picking up the win. He struck out six and issued three free passes. Josh Hill got his first save of the year and worked the final frame of the seven-inning contest.
Brett Burrell collected two hits, scored a run and drove in one for the Statesmen. Capobianco got into the action again with a hit that knocked in two runs. Hill got into the act as a hitter as he stroked a double to go along with his pitching duties. All three of the Delta State runs were scored in the second inning.
JJ Williams, Levi Cloud and Platt got Lee's only hits in the loss. Williams, French and Doughman worked their way on base with walks while Collier was hit by a pitch. All totaled, seven Flames went down on strikes and seven were left on base.
Coach Mark Brew's thoughts:
"We pitched well enough today to have a chance to win, but they did a tremendous job against our offense. Even in the few moments we had chances, they made big pitches. We will have to play much better tomorrow and we need to play with way more urgency."
