Hornets sweep Lane

Published 12:00 am Sunday, February 17, 2008

The Selma Times-Journal

Talk about things coming together.

The Concordia baseball team had a strong pitching and defensive performance, good at-bats and an opponent that has gone more than three years without winning a game.

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The result was a doubleheader sweep over visiting Lane College on Saturday at Bloch Park.

The Hornets (2-4) won game one 10-0 and game two 8-4, getting their first wins of the season after losing series to Morehouse and Albany State last week.

“We needed these two wins today,” Concordia coach Raymond Brown said. “We go on the road against Albany State again next week. To get these two today truly lets the kids know they can win.”

Without the errors that seem to follow them around, the Hornets dominated almost the entire day.

Aaron Wilson has emerged as the team’s ace and held the Dragons (0-2) to two hits in a five-inning opener. He walked two and struck out six.

“It feels good to get this first win and get the monkey off our back,” Wilson said. “My arm felt good. I changed speeds, and my fastball was in the low to mid 80s.”

The Hornets broke the game open with five runs in the second inning, allowing them to take a 6-0 lead. In the fifth, Jason Locke, Josh Thomas and Darien Wallace had consecutive run-scoring hits to extend the lead to nine.

Seth Graham allowed one run over four innings to get the win in game two.

Alex Moses came in on a wild pitch, and Graham had an RBI single to open scoring for Concordia in the first inning. A.J. Ward had a sacrifice fly in the second, and Jim Harsen had an RBI single in the fourth. Alex Smith had an RBI single in the fifth.

Mike Jones hit an RBI single for the Dragons in the top of fifth to make the score 6-3. Lane had a chance to cut into a 7-3 lead in the sixth, but Concordia reliever Edmound Pamphlett struck out Ivan Mason looking with a runner on second for the third out.

Lane added a collateral run in the seventh when Robert Johnson knocked an infield RBI single. But the game ended when Johnson got caught trying to steal home.

“We played pretty good baseball today,” Brown said. “These kids are growing up quick. We’ve worked hard enough for them to win.”