Diamond 'Cats Double Up Mount St. Mary's

February 25, 2007

Contact: Rick Bender

DAVIDSON, N.C. -- Senior Blake Osborn went 4-for-5 with four runs and four RBIs to lead a 15-hit Wildcat attack as host Davidson doubled up Mount St. Mary's on Saturday evening, 16-8. Sophomore Brett Shore pitched in three RBIs as well to help Davidson post its fifth straight victory to start the 2007 season. The Mountaineers, which had defeated Radford on Davidson's Wilson Field 10-9 in 13 innings just before this game, fell to 2-5.

All but one Wildcat had at least one hit in the game, and five registered at least two. Seniors Gregory Zage and Rob Wilson each had two hits, three runs and an RBI, while Wilson, a product of Charlotte's Myers Park High School, belted his second homer of the season to dead center in the eighth inning.

Senior Matt Knight (2-0) earned his second win with two innings of relief. He entered the game in the fourth with Mount St. Mary's holding a 3-2 lead and the bases loaded with one out. On his second pitch, Joe Hayes lofted a routine fly to right, and Osborn caught it and fired to the plate where catcher Doug Grunwald applied the tag on the runner trying to score for an inning-ending double play.

Davidson scored four times in the bottom half to take a lead it would never relinquish. Grunwald drilled a double over the left fielder's head to drive home Osborn, who had singled. When South Rowan product Shore hit a hard grounder to first, the Mountaineers came to the plate to throw out Chris FitzPatrick trying to score, but the catcher dropped the ball on the tag for an error. Sophomore Zach Kayne brought home Grunwald with a grounder to first, and sophomore Matt Webb laced an RBI single to give the 'Cats a 6-3 lead.

Mountaineer hurler Andrew Germuth (1-2) was knocked out in the fifth due to three more Wildcat runs. Zage and Osborn ripped back-to-back RBI doubles, and Shore stroked an RBI single up the middle.

Knight tired a bit in the sixth as four straight Mountaineers reached base, all of which would score to get the visitors back within two runs at 9-7. But five more Davidson tallies in the bottom of the frame, highlighted by a two-run single by Osborn and a two-run triple off the bat of FitzPatrick, all but sewed up the game.

Freshman Thomas Middour tossed the final 3.2 innings, yielding just one run on two hits while walking one and striking out one for his first collegiate save.

Germuth allowed nine runs, six earned, in 4.1 innings of work, walking two and striking out two.

Joe Diserio had three of the seven hits for Mount St. Mary's, and Ivor Hodgson lined his first homer of the season down the left-field line in the eighth.

Davidson is off to its best start since opening the 2001 season with six straight victories. The Wildcats will attempt to equal that feat tomorrow afternoon at approximately 2 p.m. against Radford (2-4), which rallied from a 9-1 deficit against Ohio in the first of the three games played during the day for a 10-9 victory. Mount St. Mary's will take on the Bobcats on Wilson Field at 11 a.m.

# # #