Trojans clobber Crimson Hawks

By Rob Craig
Published in Sports on March 15, 2007 2:30 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Following Mount Olive's thrashing of Indiana (Pa.) at Scarborough Field on Wednesday night, coach Carl Lancaster issued the biggest understatement of the evening.

"We swung the bats pretty good tonight," a smiling Lancaster said.

The No. 26 Trojans swung the bats and sprayed line drives all over the field leading to 20 hits in a 19-1 drubbing of an exhausted Indiana team.

Earlier that afternoon, the Crimson Hawks had been defeated 16-15 by Barton in Wilson and then made the trek over to Mount Olive where their pitchers ran into a white hot Trojan lineup.

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the third inning, Mount Olive went to work on Indiana pitcher Jake Rougeaux.

Scott Cooper led off the inning with one of his two hits in the frame. Stephen Nordan followed with a single of his own and both trotted home on Scott Houin's fifth triple of the season to put Mount Olive ahead for good at 2-1.

The Trojans would bat around in the inning and tally six runs to go up 7-1 and never look back as they would put up a crooked number in each of the next four innings.

In the fourth inning, Mount Olive would push two more runs home on a RBI by Dustin Richardson and a wild pitch by Rougeaux to go up 9-1.

Rougeaux (0-1) finished the night giving up nine runs (eight earned) on 11 hits, walked two and struck out two.

Indiana reliever John Farrell failed to bring any relief and continued to throw beach balls to the Trojan hitters.

Houin had the big hit off Farrell in a three-run fifth inning when he drove home two more runs on a two-run double. Houin finished a home run shy of the cycle going 3-for-5 with a double, triple and four RBIs.

Nordan continued the hit parade in the sixth inning when he singled home Jason Sherrer and Anthony Williams to give Mount Olive a 14-1 lead. Nordan would finish the evening 4-for-5 with two RBIs and three runs scored.

Mount Olive capped the night with a five-run seventh inning with pinch-hitter Austin Hood having a key two-run single to tally its final score of the night and lead 19-1. The 19 runs ties a season high for the Trojans.

"(Indiana) was out of pitching obviously," said Lancaster. "We played pretty solid. We hit plenty of line drives every which way. That was good to see and hopefully, we can continue that."

On the mound, right-hander Daniel Wood gave up just one run in five innings while striking out six to improve to a perfect 2-0 this season. Paul Buhrow and Rick Lawyer then combined to throw four scoreless innings of relief for the Trojans.

"Our pitching staff is looking really good," said Lancaster, whose team was coming off a 3-0 shutout win over Bryant on Tuesday night.

Nearly every Trojan who played got into the hitting act as 11 different players recorded at least one hit. Cooper led the way, reaching base in all five of his plate appearances and went a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate.

"When Cooper's good, we're good," said Lancaster. "He's our spark plug."

The loss drops Indiana to 2-7 while Mount Olive was victorious for the third straight time to improve to 21-8.

"Maybe we're starting to figure things out," said Lancaster, whose team has now won 16 of their last 19 games. "We've had a good season so far, but we don't feel like we've reached our full potential just yet. I've said all along this team has as much potential as any team we've ever had."

Indiana (Pa.) 001 000 000 -- 1 7 3

Mount Olive 007 232 50x -- 19 20 1

Leading Hitters -- Indiana -- T.J. Nichols 2-4, 2B; Shayne Busti 1-2, 2B; Brennen Dayton 1-4, RBI. Mount Olive -- David Cooper 4-4, 2 R, RBI; Stephen Nordan 4-5, 3 R, 2 RBI; Scott Houin 3-5, 2B, 3B, 4 RBI, 2 R; Erik Lovett 2-3, 2B, 2 R; Dustin Richardson 1-3, 3 RBI, R; Austin Hood 1-1, 2 RBI; Graham Wooten 1-4, 2 RBI.

DP -- Indiana 2, Mount Olive 1. LOB -- Indiana 7, Mount Olive 9. SB -- Richardson. CS -- Foor. SF -- Richardson.

IP H R ER BB SO

Indiana

Rougeaux (L, 0-1) 4 11 9 8 2 2

Farrell 21/3 9 10 7 4 1

Syktich 12/3 0 0 0 1 3

Mount Olive

Wood (W, 2-0) 5 6 1 1 1 4

Buhrow 3 1 0 0 1 3

Lawyer 1 0 0 0 0 1

WP -- Rougeaux, Syktich, Wood 2. PB -- Wise, Nichols. HBP -- by Rougeaxu (Sherrer), by Farrell (Sherrer). Time -- 2:50. Attendance: 165.