Wesleyan baseball takes four from Old Westbury

Rocky Mount, NC - North Carolina Wesleyan’s baseball team enjoyed two doubleheader sweeps over the weekend, taking a four-game set from SUNY Old Westbury at Bauer Field on Saturday and Sunday. Justin Diener, Kyle Robertson, Ben Moore, and Doug Roenker all picked up wins on the mound for the Bishops, who improved to 9-2 with the victories.  Old Westbury is now 0-4 to start the season.

Saturday saw the Bishops earn 13-8 and 1-0 wins, respectively.

In the series opener, both teams struggled defensively as a host of unearned runs led to a 6-5 Wesleyan lead after three innings of play.

Thanks to a pair two-run singles by Matt Smith and Ted Williams, the Bishops were able to open the game up with a seven-spot in the fifth.  The Panthers answered with three runs of their own in the seventh, but it was too little to late as NCWC cruised to the victory.

David Collado paced the Panther offense with two hits, three RBI, and two runs scored.  Williams was 3-for-4 to lead the Bishops, who tallied 12 hits as a team.

On the mound, Diener (2-0) picked up the win and George Pagan (0-1) the loss.

Game two featured a pitcher’s dual between Wesleyan’s Kyle Robertson and Old Westbury’s Rob Whitenack.  Robertson (2-0) was nearly untouchable in a complete game one-hit shutout.  He also tallied an impressive ten strikeouts.

Whitenack was just as effective in six complete innings of two-hit baseball.  He was pulled prior to the seventh in favor of Jake Tauber (0-1), who suffered the loss after giving up the game’s only run.

After Jason Gay was hit by a Tauber offering to lead off the inning, Bishop head coach Charlie Long called on the speedy Joel Creef to pinch run.  Creef was promptly advanced to second by a Justin Tuck sacrifice bunt and scored by a walk-off single to right by freshman Justin Rahm for the 1-0 final.

In Sunday’s first game, Wesleyan plated six runs over the first three innings, which was more than enough for Moore. Moore (2-1) struck out ten and allowed just two runs (one earned) on four hits in the complete game effort.

Offensively, Smith and Justin Batts each had two hits and two RBI for the Bishops, who went on to plate three insurance runs in the fifth for a 9-2 final.

Collado (0-1) took the loss for the Panthers.  He allowed five runs (four earned) on four hits while walking six in two innings of work.

The series finale saw the Bishops open up a 4-0 advantage after three. Creef and Smith plated Wesleyan’s first two runs with sacrifice flies, while Batts blasted a two-run homer over the pine trees in left to score runs three and four.

Old Westbury cut the lead in half with two runs on three hits in the fourth. Collado’s RBI-single to left scored the Panthers’ first run, while the second came on a first and third situation that saw Collado get caught stealing.

Smith later added an insurance run on yet another sac-fly, while Luke Williford, Jason Webb, and Chris Pecora all drove in runs to complete a six-run fifth and 10-2 final.

Roenker (1-0) went five innings and allowed two runs on nine hits.  He also struck out six and walked none. Tom Butler (0-1) took the loss for the Panthers.

The Bishops return to action on Wednesday when they play host to Capital University. First pitch is slated for 3:00 p.m. at Bauer Field.

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