McCoy homers, but Stillman routs Selma in series opener

Published 9:14 pm Friday, March 24, 2017

There were some bright spots for Selma University Friday against Stillman College, including a home run by Dominic McCoy, but they were few and far between in what turned into a 17-5 loss.

Stillman scored seven runs in the fourth inning to break the game wide open. The loss knocked Selma to 5-8 on the year and ruined any plans the Bulldogs had of getting back above .500 this weekend.

“We were right in the game within one run, and then we fell apart man — errors,” said Selma coach Adrian Holloway. “Errors killed us, not making the routine plays and then on top of that we stopped hitting. We kind of shut ourselves down after the fourth inning. Just kind of let it go, gave it up and stopped playing ball.”

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McCoy’s home run to left field in the bottom of the third pulled Selma within two. The Bulldogs tacked on one more run on a single by Marcus Hardy to get within 4-3, but that’d be as close as they’d get the remainder of the game.

“I was smiling when he was running around the bases. I was smiling the whole time,” Holloway said. “It’s his first one this year, maybe the first one of his career. It was a good moment, a bright spot out of the day.”

In the top of the fourth, Stillman opened the game back up with a ground rule double by Josh McDaniel to go ahead 7-3. Cameron Kilgore followed with a single down the first base line — the ball actually ricocheted off first base — to tack on two more runs. A double off the center field wall by Justin Cottingham kept the Tigers’ momentum going and put them up 10-3.

Selma University made a pitching change, bringing Cotez Rogers Allen in for Tariq Aaron. Allen eventually stopped the bleeding, but not before two more Tigers scored to put Stillman up nine runs.

To their credit, the Bulldogs kept fighting. Selma scored two more runs, both on singles by Ricky Butts that scored Daryl Bourne. By the time, Bourne scored the second of those runs, Stillman had already added five more runs and put the game away.

Ryan McSwain got the final three outs for Selma, including forcing Stillman’s Lazaro Rodriguez to hit into an inning ending double play.

Stillman also took the second game on Friday 9-6. The teams were scheduled to play one game on Saturday.