FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 3-23-00

College Baseball: No. 27 AASU 4, Kutztown 3 (10)

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Junior third baseman Bryan Beckmann's squeeze bunt brought home Kevin Bullard with the winning run in the bottom of the 10^th inning to give the No. 27-ranked Armstrong Atlantic State Pirates a 4-3 win over Kutztown on Thursday afternoon at Pirate Field.

Bullard led off the top of the 10^th for the Pirates (25-7) with a bad-hop single over Kutztown (15-9) shortstop Al Fitch's head. Brian Pickel's sacrifice bunt moved Bullard to second base, then a wild pitch put Bullard on at third. After Mike Cadwallader reached on an infield single, Beckman bunted the ball to KU first baseman Mike Murphy, whose throw home was too late to get Bullard.

Beckman's RBI made a winner out of freshman Andrew Moss, who entered the top of the ninth inning and pitched two scoreless innings for his second win of the season. Tim Bausher went the distance for Kutztown, giving up eight hits and four runs in 9 1/3 innings.

Bausher and AASU starter Simon Stoner were locked in a 1-0 pitcher's duel until the seventh inning, when KU's Fitch doubled home Chris Lauwers with two outs to tie the game at one apiece. AASU grabbed the lead back in the bottom of the seventh thanks to Bill Keifer's RBI fielder's choice, but Kutztown went back on top in the top of the eighth on Lauwers' towering two-run home run to center field. The Pirates forced extra innings with a single run in the bottom of the eighth on Cadwallader's sacrifice bunt that drove in Haydn Chinn.

Today's game marks the final contest in the 2000 Savannah Invitational. AASU went 13-1 against the Savannah Invitational field, which began back on February 29 with a 12-7 win over Mercyhurst.

The Pirates return to action this weekend in a key Peach Belt Athletic Conference series against No. 2-ranked North Florida. The Pirates and the Ospreys will play a doubleheader on Saturday, March 25 at Noon, then wrap up the series with a single game on Sunday, March 26 at 1:00 p.m.

- Pirates -