Wallace College - Baseball Press Releases

Wallace sweeps EOCC	2008-04-06
Despite questionable relief pitching, untimely errors, rain delayed games, and everything else that happened, it turned out to be a very good weekend for the Wallace College Govs. With their double header sweep of the Enterprise-Ozark Boll Weevils Sunday afternoon, the Govs completed a three-game conference sweep to remain on top of the Southern Division.
In the first game, the Govs literally had to hold on for an 11-10 victory. Game two had much of the same drama, but Wallace was able to come away with a 6-4 win. “Thank God we can hit a little bit,” said Wallace coach Mackey Sasser, who saw his team improve to 18-3 in conference play and 23-10 overall. Enterprise came over here to play ball and we had to battle them until the very end.” Even though the Govs got good starting pitching in both games, each one came down to the final at-bat. Justin Hay got the job done in game two, tossing five complete innings and allowing only two earned runs. Sloan Simmons pitched the sixth inning, but Brett Chamberlain came on in the seventh to earn the save. Chamberlain was able to coax a double play ground ball out of Justin Crossley to end the game. This third game of the series was the only one in which the Govs never trailed. Daniel Torrente made sure of that when he hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first. After Chamberlain singled and stole second, he scored on an RBI single from Ryan Reece, giving the Govs a 4-0 lead. Enterprise never got closer than two runs after that. Every time the Boll Weevils scored, the Govs responded. The last response was a solo home run by Reece in the fifth inning. Reece was perfect in this game, going three-for-three with two RBIs. The Boll Weevils big run came in the top of the sixth when they scored two runs. But it was accomplished with a lot of help from Wallace. The Boll Weevils only had one hit, but the Govs committed a run scoring error, hit a batter, walked another, and the second run scored on a wild pitch. Sean Gancer took the loss for the Boll Weevils. He pitched six innings and gave up all six runs. In game one, late-inning pitching was once again an issue. After the Govs got 6 2/3 strong innings out of Joseph Braswell, the game was once again in the hands of the bullpen. It took three pitchers to get through the final 2 2/3 innings, but Wallace managed to hold for the one-run victory. The Govs had to rally from behind twice in order to win the contest. First, it was a 2-0 deficit in the first inning. Then it was a one-run deficit in the seventh when EOCC briefly took a 7-6 lead. But in the bottom of the seventh the Govs responded with three runs of their own. Wallace got RBI singles from Daniel Torrente, Ryan Reece, and Rafael Carlot to take a 9-7 lead. However the Boll Weevils wouldn’t go away. An RBI single by Matt Whitten in the top of the eighth once again made it one-run game. The Govs got a home run from T.J. Rivera and an RBI single from Chamberlain in the bottom of the eighth, putting the Govs up by three. But a three-run lead going into the ninth inning wasn’t safe. Hunter Green walked Justin Gauthier to lead off the inning and he later scored on a wild pitch. Brooks Glover was hit by the Govs fourth pitcher of the game, Daniel Carela. He later scored on a sacrifice fly by Diaz. When the game came to an end, the tying run was standing at second base. As they did in the second game, the Govs hit two home runs. In this game, it was Rivera and Reece who hit solo shots. The Govs will now take a long break from conference play. This Tuesday, the Govs will travel to Abraham-Baldwin for a double header. There is no conference game next weekend, and the following Tuesday Wallace will host Andrew College. Nathaniel Frazier is Sports Information Director for Wallace College Baseball. He can be reached at NFrazier@DothanEagle.com.