LEXINGTON, Va.? UNC Asheville pounded out a season-high 21 hits and tied a season-high with 15 runs, as junior hurler Graham Baughn collected his second complete game of the season in a 15-4 win over VMI on Saturday evening. The win improves the Bulldogs to 18-30 overall and 8-9 in the Big South, while the Keydets fall to 30-14 and 6-8 in League play.
Baughn (5-4) needed only 100 pitches to hurl his third complete game of his career, allowing seven hits and giving up four runs, three earned, while striking out three. Keydet starter Trey Barham (8-4) took the loss, allowing seven runs on ten hits in his shortest start of the season, lasting only 3.1 innings. In all, five pitchers took the hill for VMI, with four of the five giving up runs.
The Bulldogs were led offensively by Rob Vernon, who went 4-for-5 with two RBI, while leadoff man Kevin Mattison fell a single short of the cycle, going 3-for-6 with three RBI. Other three-hit performances for the visitors included David Williams, John Whited and Kyle Smith, who drove in five runs with a double and a home run, two of six extra-base hits for UNCA.
The Keydets got a pair of hits from Robert Crumpler and Jacoby Fields, with the seniors combining for all three RBI on the day. Crumpler slugged his team-leading 13th home run of the season to lead off the bottom of the ninth, while Fields hit a pair of doubles.
Mattison led off the game with a home run to rightfield off of Barham, before the Keydets answered to tied the game in the second inning on Fields' RBI double, plating Eddie Van Es. The Bulldogs exploded from there, plating ten runs over the next two innings.
A one-out triple from Mattison got things going in the third, followed by back-to-back-to-back singles, making it a 3-1 advantage. After Barham struck out Elliott Arrington for the second out of the inning, a two-run single back up the middle gave the Blue and White a 5-1 lead.
After the Keydets were retired 1-2-3 in the bottom of the third, the Bulldogs went back to work in the fourth. A pair of leadoff singles were followed by Barham's fourth strikeout of the game, before Henson brought home his second run in as many innings with a double to leftfield, chasing Barham in favor of senior reliever Ian Casher.
Casher was greeted with a two-bagger from Vernon which plated one run but saw Henson thrown out at home for the second out, making the margin 7-1. After Casher hit the next batter, Arrington made it an 8-1 game with his single into leftfield, before Smith capped the scoring with a three-run home run, his second of the season to chase Casher from the game.
Baughn continued to mow down the Keydets, facing only two over the minimum through five innings, while Chris Duty allowed his lone run in 2.1 innings in the sixth. After hitting Vernon to lead off the inning, Arrington plated Vernon two batters later.
The Keydets cut the margin to 12-2 in the bottom of the sixth, as Tanner Biagini, in his first at bat of the afternoon, was hit by a pitch before coming around to score on Crumpler's single later in the inning. Josh McPherson came on in relief for VMI in the seventh, and allowed three runs over the next 1.2 innings, with Henson, Vernon and Burnich doing the damage, while the Keydets tacked another run in the seventh as Fields scampered home on a passed ball after his second double of the evening.
Daniel Wood came on in relief to record the final four outs, allowing only one hit while striking out two. Meanwhile, the Keydets saw Crumpler crush a home run for the second straight day, but saw a pair of runners stranded as Baughn completed only UNCA's second game of the season.
The Keydets and Bulldogs wrap up the three-game series on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Gray-Minor Stadium.
