FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – The Frostburg State baseball team jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as it took down perennial NCAA regional qualifier St. Joseph's (Maine) 14-2.
For the second weekend in a row, Mother Nature tried to keep the Bobcats off the diamond but for the second week in a row head coach Guy Robertson persisted that the show must go on! With the help of the St. Joseph's players and staff, co-host Pitt-Greensburg head coach Anthony Williams, and the maintenance crew, the field, once deemed 'unplayable', was turned over and resurrected. The game would commence two and a half hours after the scheduled start time.
The delay failed to unsettle Frostburg State (6-0) as it jumped on top in the bottom of the first. Senior Zach Weiss set the tone with a lead-off single to left-center. After a Ricky Castro walk, senior Kam Stewart drilled a ball through the left side to score Weiss from second, giving the Bobcats an early 1-0 lead.
Frostburg struck again in the bottom half of the second. Junior Zach Keeler led off the segment with a single to left field. The Monks starting pitcher got two of the next three Bobcats to return to the dugout before Weiss came up for the second time and smacked a double down the right field line, bringing home two runs. Castro continued the two-out rally with a single that scored Weiss from second. Two batters later, senior Nick Walker concluded the inning's run production with a deep, two RBI single.
St. Joseph's (0-4) was able to get the FSU's senior starting pitcher Bennett Schiltz in the top of the third, but for only one run and the Bobcats led 6-1 through the first three innings. The first two Monks that came to the plate found their way on with a pair of singles before Schiltz retired the next batter with a fly ball to right to put runners on the corners. With one out, Taylor Reuillard singled to first base to bring around the Monks' on run of the inning. After another fly ball to right gave the Bobcats two outs, Walker got Schiltz and FSU out of the inning gunning down Taylor Black trying to score from second on a single by Jameson Collins.
The Bobcats chased St. Joseph's starting pitcher in the bottom of the fourth as senior Ricky Brady found a pitch he liked and got all of it to send the ball clear over the right field fence to bring home Stewart and Castro and push the Bobcat lead to 9-1. The Frostburg bats were held quiet until the sixth inning when the Bobcats extended their lead to 12-1. Castro drew a walk to lead off the inning and came around to score on a double to left center from Stewart. Walker continued his hot-hitting with a screaming triple to right center to bring home Stewart. Senior Ricky Brady capped off the three-run inning with a sacrifice fly to right to score Walker.
The Monks scored their only other run of the game on an RBI double in the top of the seventh. Schiltz was able to avoid any more damage retiring the next two batters to preserve FSU's 12-2 lead.
Junior Connor Cooper put the finishing touches on the Bobcats' 14-run performance with a pinch-hit two run home run that made a splash in more ways than one to give Frostburg a 14-2 lead after eight innings. Freshman right hander Tyler Hoffman came in for Frostburg to finish the game on the mound and pitched a perfect ninth striking out all three Monks he saw.
Schiltz picked up his second win with another spectacular performance on the mound going 7.0 innings allowing just two runs on nine hits while striking out six against a perennial NCAA regional team. Stewart led the Bobcats at the plate going 3-for-4 with four runs and two RBI.
Frostburg's originally scheduled game against Ramapo for this afternoon has been rescheduled for tomorrow at 3:00 pm due to cold weather in Fayetteville. The scheduled noon game tomorrow against Pitt–Greensburg will remain at noon as scheduled.
