HARTSVILLE, S.C. – The Cobra baseball team swept its double-header against the Chowan University Hawks on Sunday (Feb. 2) winning game one, 12-3 and taking game two, 6-2. Coker won the three-game series 2-1 and improves to 2-1 overall to start the 2014 season.
Pitching and hitting were the keys to the Cobras victory in game one. Coker scored 12 runs on 14 hits, while starting pitcher Matthew Prosser was lights out on the mound, holding the Hawks to just two hits in six innings of work.
The Cobras scored at least one run in five of the seven innings, plating four runs in the third, two in the fourth and another four in the fifth. Chowan's three runs came in the top of the seventh, making it a 12-3 final.
Prosser (1-0) finished the game with seven strikeouts, and allowed no runs in six innings on the mound.
Will Winslow and Shea Bell led the Cobras at the plate as both went 2-for-3 with three RBIs. Winslow had two doubles and scored a pair of runs, while Bell had a double and scored a single run. Jarren Donato, Fico Kondla and Ernie Kirkwood each collected multiple hits and drove in runs. Donato had two hits and drove in two runs, while Kondla had a double, with an RBI and three runs scored, and Kirkwood had a triple with an RBI and a run scored.
In game two, freshman pitcher Ben Brown and senior centerfielder Sammy Song led the way in the 6-2 win.
Brown (1-0) made his collegiate debut a memorable one as he went the distance for the Cobras. He allowed just two runs on two hits with five strikeouts in seven innings of work.
Song was the offensive catalyst for the Cobras as he went 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and three runs scored. Kirkwood added two RBIs on a triple, while Kondla and T.J. Giczkowski each hit doubles. Giczkowski also drove in a run.
In the second game of the day, Coker once again jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Chowan answered with a run of their own in the top of the second, to tie the game. A two-run third inning by Coker gave the Cobras a little breathing room at 3-1.
The Hawks would not go quietly, as they cut the lead to just one with a run an inning later. After a scoreless fifth, the Cobras put the game away with a three-run sixth, taking home the 6-2 victory.
The Cobras will be back on the diamond on Tuesday (Feb. 4) at home against St. Augustine's College. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Coker's Tom J. New Field.
McDonald's Player of the Game – Sammy Song and Ernie Kirkwood