April 21, 2007

Box Score

Daytona Beach, Fla. - Chris Henault hit his eight homerun of the year and Neil Jones registered his fifth triple as Bethune-Cookman enjoyed a doubleheader sweep of Coppin State in baseball on Saturday on scores of 14-3 and 6-1 at Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona Beach, Fla. Both games were Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference match-ups.

B-CU (20-22, 9-1 MEAC) put a score on the board in all but one inning on the day setting a school-record [Division I] streak of nine consecutive innings with a run scored.

Chris Henault ended the first game with a 10-run rule in the bottom of the sixth frame as he felt confident in his abilities to take an Elgin Thomas 3-0 pitch out of the park for his team-leading eighth round-trip of the campaign. He scored designated hitter Michael Range on the play after Range reached safely via a walk from Thomas.

Thomas faced just two batters for CSU (0-35, 0-11 MEAC) in relief action of starter Harry Williams.

CSU opened up the game with one run in the top of the opening frame as Williams walked, stole second and appropriately scored on an RBI single to centerfield from first baseman Deshawn Daniel. The Wildcats, however, countered in the bottom of the frame when Neil Jones blasted a run-scoring triple to tie the game at 1-1. The `Cats took the lead when senior Luis Gonzalez posted a sacrifice fly that plated Jones from third.

B-CU would score three runs, respectively, in each of the following innings: second, third and fifth. The highlight of those innings was freshman Justin Hoyte's two-run single to right field that plated both Patrick Jones and José Almonte.

The win went to Francisco Rodriguez who fanned a career-high 11 batters to leave the B-CU faithful above the Wildcats dugout completely out of "Ks" as they tracked Rodriguez's performance. Rodriguez upped his record on the year to 6-3 allowing just three runs (one earned) on five hits through five innings.

Concepcion Guzman closed things out with one inning of work on the hill for the `Cats, collecting a walk and a strikeout. The win was a 14-3 decision for the `Cats.

Three players for B-CU had a perfect 2-for-2 game at the plate in the form of Neil Jones, Almonte and Alejandro Jimenez.

The loss went to Williams for CSU, dropping his record to 0-7 on the campaign.

In the second game, the `Cats seemed almost lackluster as they dropped off tremendously in their efforts to score from the first to the second contest.

Seven Wildcats registered hits, including first baseman Alejandro Jimenez run-scoring double down the left field line in the fifth inning.

The `Cats scored runs in five of the six frames for which they stepped into the batters box. They failed to post a run in the fourth as the Eagles starting pitcher Teon Richburg stepped up big for Harvey Lee's team from Baltimore, Md.

It wasn't enough, however, as it was Neil Jones coming through again in the sixth inning with an RBI shot back up the middle to bring in freshman outfielder Orlando Bacon on the play. Bacon singled and stole second earlier in the frame.

B-CU took the nightcap affair, 6-1.

The pitching for the Wildcats, as it was all day long, was spectacular as senior Dustin Blackwell dealt with finesse and power, spreading out two hits and one (1) unearned run via a failed pickoff attempt. He also struck out two Eagles and allowed zero (0) walks with pin-point accuracy and control.

The loss went to CSU's Richburg who dropped to 0-6 for the season.

These two teams will meet once again for the third game of this three-game series tomorrow back at Jackie Robinson Ballpark for a game slated to begin at 1 p.m. Live stats for Sunday's contest will be available through Game Tracker at www.BCCathletics.com.