N. Davidsons' Four Solo Homers One Too Many For Spartans
On what was practically a perfect night for baseball, the Spartans fell 4-3 to the Knights of North Davidson in a heated conference battle. The night started off with a special ceremony commemorating the beautiful new renovations to Carl R. Sapp field. Ms. Carl Sapp, the daughter of Carl R. Sapp who the field is named after, threw out the first pitch. The house was packed for what everyone knew would be a battle....and it was.
Things seemed grim for Tabor when the first two N. Davidson batters cranked back to back solo home runs off of Jon Gordon to take an early 2-0 lead. Gordon managed to get out of the inning with 2 K's and then the Spartans answered with two of their own via RBI's from Bradley Morton and Jamie Nunn. Neither team accumulated any runs in the second inning but Landon Lassiter for ND blasted a solo home to deep center to take the lead 3-2 in the third. The Spartans were quick to strike back when Lassiter's future Tarheel teammate Bradley Morton drove a deep solo shot over the stadium in right field to tie the game at 3. The Knights hit their fourth solo home run in the top of the fourth to take back the lead 4-3. The Spartans seemed to be in trouble in the 5th inning when the Knights loaded the bases with only one out after Senior pitcher Gordon had to leave the game after taking a hard ground ball to the face. The scene was painted for Sophomore Thomas St. Clair to come in under about as tough a situation as you could ask for, especially against a group of hitters like ND has from 1-9. St Clair needed two big outs to get the Spartans out of a rut, and he did just that with two huge consecutive strike outs. St. Clair's spectacular outing continued as he held the Knights scoreless, racking up 7 K's out of a possible eight outs in 2 and 2/3 innings. But the Spartan offense couldn't generate a comeback in the last three at bats and fell one run short. The Spartans drop to 0-6 on the season and 0-2 in the CPC. Next week, the Spartans continue conference play at RJR Tuesday and at West Forsyth Friday.
See WXII's coverage of opening night HERE
Things seemed grim for Tabor when the first two N. Davidson batters cranked back to back solo home runs off of Jon Gordon to take an early 2-0 lead. Gordon managed to get out of the inning with 2 K's and then the Spartans answered with two of their own via RBI's from Bradley Morton and Jamie Nunn. Neither team accumulated any runs in the second inning but Landon Lassiter for ND blasted a solo home to deep center to take the lead 3-2 in the third. The Spartans were quick to strike back when Lassiter's future Tarheel teammate Bradley Morton drove a deep solo shot over the stadium in right field to tie the game at 3. The Knights hit their fourth solo home run in the top of the fourth to take back the lead 4-3. The Spartans seemed to be in trouble in the 5th inning when the Knights loaded the bases with only one out after Senior pitcher Gordon had to leave the game after taking a hard ground ball to the face. The scene was painted for Sophomore Thomas St. Clair to come in under about as tough a situation as you could ask for, especially against a group of hitters like ND has from 1-9. St Clair needed two big outs to get the Spartans out of a rut, and he did just that with two huge consecutive strike outs. St. Clair's spectacular outing continued as he held the Knights scoreless, racking up 7 K's out of a possible eight outs in 2 and 2/3 innings. But the Spartan offense couldn't generate a comeback in the last three at bats and fell one run short. The Spartans drop to 0-6 on the season and 0-2 in the CPC. Next week, the Spartans continue conference play at RJR Tuesday and at West Forsyth Friday.
See WXII's coverage of opening night HERE
Photo gallery courtesy of MyNDSports.com:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knight | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Spartans | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
