FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 3-24-02

College Baseball: No. 11 Columbus State 4-9, No. 19 AASU 1-1

Release Courtesy of CSU Sports Information

COLUMBUS, Ga. – The CSU Cougars got quality pitching and solid hitting on Sunday as they took both ends of a double header and completed a three game sweep of Armstrong Atlantic State. CSU won game one 4-1 and took the nightcap 9-1.

In game one, Buck Bradberry (5-2) pitched into the ninth inning before giving way to Brian Baker. The senior righty scattered 11 hits and struck out six, allowing just one run in eight innings of work. He surrendered back-to-back hits to start the ninth inning and gave way to Baker who retired the three batters he faced in order to record his second save of the series.

CSU took the early lead in the second inning as Shawn Sewell singled home Andrew Ginther with two outs to make it 1-0. AASU responded with a single run in the third as David Harriman singled home Chris Dentler to tie the game.

CSU took the lead for good in the fourth inning. Ginther led off with a double and scored on Ladd Hammond's single down the right field line to make it 2-1. The Cougars tacked on a run in the sixth on a Larry Pittmon home run to center field, and added another as Taylor Groce launched an Andrew Moss offering over the center field wall.

Sewell finished the game 4-4 with an RBI, while Ginther collected three hits, including a double, and scored twice. Groce and Hammond added two hits each.

In game two, CSU got another solid pitching performance from Jason Burdette and smacked three Pirate pitchers around for 11 hits. Burdette pitched a complete game, fanning seven and allowed just one run - on the 12th homer of the season by Kirk Nordness in the ninth - to move to 4-1 on the year.

Ladd Hammond jacked his second homer of the year in the second inning to give CSU a 2-0 lead. The Cougars added four more runs in the fourth on four hits and an error to take a commanding 6-0 lead. Chris Gilstrap and Josh Maner each doubled in the inning, and Taylor Groce smacked his second homer of the day - a two-run shot to center - to break the game open.

The Cougars added three more runs in the fourth. After Shawn Sewell tripled with one out, Gilstrap and Maner lashed back-to-back doubles to make it 8-0. Ben Sutter plated the final run with a sacrifice fly later in the inning.

Maner led the CSU offense with three hits, two of them doubles, and two RBI. Gilstrap, Brian Koon, and Groce each added a pair of hits. Groce and Ladd Hammond had two RBI each.

David Harriman of AASU collected a hit in the game to extend his PBC record hitting streak to 36 games. He had one hit in each game of the twinbill.

- Pirates -