LEXINGTON, Va.- Redshirt junior Travis Smink hurled VMI's first complete game of the season, leading the Keydets to a 6-1 win over UNC Asheville in game one of a Big South series on Friday afternoon at Gray-Minor Stadium.
Smink (3-2) scattered seven hits in his second career complete game, striking out five while issuing only one walk. UNC Asheville starter Taylor Wohlwend (2-5) took the loss, surrendering six runs on ten hits through seven-plus innings, striking out six Keydets.
VMI (9-10, Big South) remained perfect in conference play this season by scoring solo home runs from Sam Roberts and Tanner Biagini before breaking the game open with a three-run seventh inning. After Justin Topping led off the seventh with a base knock, Sandridge executed a hit-and-run on the next pitch, singling to the right-side of the infield to put runners at the corners. Jacob Morley followed with an RBI single, before A.J. Yoder tripled down the right-field line to plate a pair.
The Keydets capped their scoring in the eighth, as Morley banged his second run-scoring single in as many innings to plate Roberts, who reached on a leadoff double.
UNC Asheville (3-16, 1-5 Big South), meanwhile, plated its only run in the sixth. That tally came when Cody Buch's single off of Tanner Biagini's glove bounded into shallow left field, plating Justin Schumer. Smink then rebounded to strand a pair of runners for the second straight inning, and the Bulldogs managed only one more base runner in the final three frames.
Roberts paced the Keydet offense by going 2-for-4 with a double, a home run and two runs scored, while Yoder was 2-for-4 with two RBI. Morley and Justin Topping each contributed two hits as well, with Morley driving home a pair of runs. Danny Baatz was 2-for-4 atop the Bulldog lineup, while Kevin Weidenbacher's fifth-inning double accounted for UNC Asheville's only extra-base hit against Smink.
The teams play the second of a three-game series at Gray-Minor Stadium on Saturday afternoon, with first pitch set for 2 p.m.
