LAURINBURG, N.C. - The Coker College baseball team put on an offensive clinic on Wednesday (Apr. 10) as they beat St. Andrews 18-10 in a non-conference tilt in 11 innings. After ending the opening nine innings tied at 9, the Cobras used a nine-run 11th inning to secure the win over the Knights.
The Cobras got on the board first as Grant Thompson advanced to third on a Larry McCabe double and scored following an error by the St. Andrews first baseman. Coker extended their lead to four in the top of the second before the Knights rallied back to tie it up at four all. The tie would not last long as the Navy and Gold come through on the offensive end once again with a pair of runs in the third. After tying it back up in the fourth, St. Andrews managed to take their first lead of the game in the bottom of the sixth as they saw three runs cross the plate. Coker cut the deficit to just one in the seventh and KJ Curry scored on another error on the Knight's first baseman to knot the game up at nine in the ninth.
With the game still tied up at nine the Cobras exploded for nine runs in the top of the 11th, which was highlighted by a grand slam by McCabe.
McCabe led the Cobras offensively as he went 4-6 on the day with four RBI and two runs scored. Chase Bruno and Lake Lybrand were right behind McCabe as they notched three hits, while Gavin Matthews, Casey Demko, and Matt Swiderski all added two hits. Demko also tied for the team-high with four RBI and RJ Ball, Matthews, and Bruno recorded two. Reilly Hall chipped in with one RBI in the win.
Drake Knight got the nod on the mound as he tossed four innings, surrendering five earned runs on five hits. Michael DeLeo came on to throw 1.2 innings as he gave up just one earned run on one hit before giving way to Jonathan Ford, who would go on to pick up the win. Ford pitched a gem over the final 5.1 innings as he allowed just one run and two hits while striking out three.
The Cobras will be back in action on Friday (Apr. 12) when they host South Atlantic Conference foe Anderson in game one of a three-game series starting at 3:00 PM.