By: Jake Miller
HICKORY, N.C.- Coker baseball has a love/hate relationship with big innings, as they dropped game one of their SAC doubleheader 22-9 and won the rubber match 15-6 at Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday (April 2).
Coker (22-14, 8-7 SAC) was dropped by two big innings in game one as Lenoir-Rhyne took game two of the series 22-9. Will Winslow recorded three hits in the game, Thomas Lopez and Clint Allen each had two and AJ Strnad, Charlie Burguieres, Jack Leech and Miguel Frias each collected one.
Forrest Arnold (3-3) took the loss, tossing 3.1 innings allowing seven earned runs on eight hits while striking out one. Anthony Scaccia, Jake Moore, Kenny Barry and Joey Carpenter all appeared in relief in the loss.
Game two saw the Cobras use a big inning of their own in a 15-6 victory for the series win. Two runs in the first, four in the second, five in the fourth, one in the sixth and three in the seventh on 19 hits propelled the Cobras in the effort. Winslow stayed hot recording a 4-4 effort with five RBI's while Strnad collected three hits, Colton Henthorne, Frias, Lopez, Burguieres and Allen each knocked two hits. Leech and Ryan Wayne each tallied one hit in the win.
Will Sutton (3-2) took the win in the rubber match, firing 4.1 innings allowing four earned runs on three hits while issuing three free passes and punching out three. Scaccia came on for his second relief appearance the day and Ryan Milner also recorded a relief outing.
The Cobras are back in action on Wednesday (April 6) when they host Claflin in non-conference action. First pitch is set for 2:00 p.m. at Tom J. New Field. Tickets for the game are $5 for adults, $3 for students and free to all Coker faculty, staff and students.