THOMASVILLE, N.C. – The Frostburg State baseball team completed a three-game sweep of Guilford with a 10-4 win Sunday afternoon. The Bobcats head back north with a 5-0 record to open the season.
Frostburg posted its highest run total of the young season after a six-run second inning carried the Bobcats to a convincing win. Senior Kam Stewart continued his hot-hitting as he roped a double down the left field line to bring home senior Zach Weiss and sophomore JT Tipton and give FSU an early 5-0 lead. Senior Nick Walker followed suit with a double to left center to bring around Stewart. After a throwing error allowed senior Nick McElfish to reach base and Walker to cross home, Tipton finished out the scoring with a fielder's choice that allowed junior Zach Keeler cross the plate.
As powerful as the offense has been, the starting pitching has been equally as strong. Coming into today's contest, Frostburg starters went 23.2 innings without giving up a run and only allowed five hits. Freshman Greg Schneider continued that streak over the five two innings, allowing just two base runners. Austin Wilson broke up the scoreless streak, however, with a lead-off homerun to get Guilford on the board in the top of the third. Schneider retired the next seven batters to maintain the 9-1 lead for FSU.
With two outs in the top of the sixth, the Quakers got two more runs back after an RBI double from Logan Jones was followed by an RBI single from Josh Shepherd. Guilford pulled within six runs at 9-3 in favor of FSU after six innings.
The Quakers scored their last run of the ballgame on an RBI double from Nathan Fullbright in the top of the seventh but FSU got the run back in the bottom of the inning as Stewart capitalized on a wild pitch to push the Bobcat lead to 10-4.
Junior Zach Lawhorn came out in relief of sophomore Jake Stephens to strike out Tyler Petersen to close out the game for FSU.
Schneider picked up his second win in as many games after pitching 5.2 strong innings, allowing just three runs on five hits while striking out seven. Lou Trosch suffered the loss for Guilford after lasting just 1.1 innings, allowing seven runs on seven hits and two walks.
Frostburg returns to action next weekend as the Bobcats head back to North Carolina, this time with a trip to Fayetteville to host St. Joseph's (Maine), Ramapo and Pitt-Greensburg in a weekend tournament. The Bobcats open the weekend against St. Joseph's on Friday at 3:00 pm.
