FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - The Frostburg State baseball team opened Capital Athletic Conference action with a doubleheader sweep of Wesley Sunday afternoon at JP Riddle Stadium in Fayetteville. With the pair of wins, the Bobcats improved to 9-0 to open the season for the first time in recent history.
The 1-2 punch of seniors Bennett Schiltz and Clayton Freimuth proved to be too much for Wesley (0-3, 0-2 CAC) batters and the Bobcat offense provided more than enough run supports as it has all season in the conference sweep. FSU took the first game 15-4 and capped the sweep with a 6-2 victory in the night cap.
The Bobcats took an early 4-0 lead in the first game behind a pair of two run innings in the third and fourth before the bats really came alive for five runs in the fifth to break the game open. Senior Kam Stewart led off the frame with his first home run of the season. With runners on the corners and no outs, junior Zach Keeler singled back to the pitcher and brought home senior Nick Walker. Senior Zach Weiss started a two-out rally with a single through the left side to score senior Ricky Brady and give Frostburg a 7-0 lead. The Bobcats took advantage of a Wolverine miscue and scored their final two runs on the inning on a error by the third baseman to take a 9-0 lead after five innings.
Schiltz continued his dominance on the mound and held Wesley scoreless through six innings of work, allowing just seven hits, all singles and struck out two Wolverines.
Senior Ricky Castro extended the Bobcat lead to 10-0 with an RBI double in the sixth to score senior Nick McElfish. After Stewart walked to load the bases, Walker sent the second pitch he saw in his at bat over the left center fence to give Frostburg a 14-0 lead.
Wesley scored its first two runs of the game in the bottom of the eighth but the effort proved to be too little too late for the Wolverines. Frostburg held a 15-2 lead going into the final at bats for both teams. The Bobcats added their final run on an RBI-double from freshman Greg Scheider to cap their scoring at 15-2 in favor of FSU. The Wolveines added their final two runs in the bottom of the ninth to bring the score to its final at 15-4.
Schiltz earned his third win of the season on the mound for FSU while Wiley suffered the loss for the Wolverines.
The night cap was a tigher played game as the score was tied at two after three innings of play. The Bobcats took the lead early with a pair of runs off a single from Weiss in the top of the second but Wesley came back to tie it in the bottom of the third with a two-run single in the third. Freimuth settled down and retired the next six batters he saw and picked up three of his 12 strikeouts for the game.
Frostburg took the lead for good in the sixth with an RBI single from senior Lane Farmer and a bases-loaded walk from Castro to lead 4-2.
Freimuth gave up a lead-off walk in the sixth but struck out the side to halt any rally Wesley was planning. Junior Connor Cooper pushed the Bobcat lead to 5-2 with a sacrifice fly in the seventh and Freimuth set the Wolverines down in order in the home half of the frame.
After getting the first out of the eighth, Freimuth was lifted for a relief pitcher to close his book after another impressive performance on the mound for FSU. The senior went 7.1 innings and allowed just two runs on four hits and 12 strikeouts. The double-digit day was his second in as many tries as he struck out 14 in his no-hitter last week.
Frostburg scored its final run of the day on a sacfly from Keeler in the top of the ninth to give FSU its 6-2 win.
Junior Nick Huff, who came in for Freimuth in the eighth, closed out the game for his first save of the season with three strikeouts in the ninth to close the door on Wesley.
Weiss finished the doubleheader 4-for-7 at the plate including two runs and three RBI.
Frostburg continues CAC action on Wednesday when the Bobcats travel to Southern Virginia for a 3:00 pm single game.
