MOC baseball advances

By Steve Roush
Published in Sports on April 22, 2007 2:01 AM

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WILSON -- Stephen Nordan drove in six runs with a home run and two doubles, and nationally 18th-ranked and top-seeded Mount Olive broke tie with a five-run sixth inning and a seven-run seventh inning for a 16-3 victory over No. 3 seed Pfeiffer in the 2007 Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference baseball tournament Saturday.

The win moves the defending champion Trojans into today's title game. First pitch is 1 p.m.

Dating back to the championship game of last year's tournament, the Trojans have scored exactly 16 runs in three of their last four CVAC tournament games.

Mount Olive (43-11) took a 2-0 lead as Nordan singled in a run in the top of the first inning and hit a solo home run in the third, his eighth of the year. Pfeiffer (26-25) answered with three runs in the bottom of the fourth, but the Trojans tied the game in the fifth on Dustin Richardson's sacrifice fly.

Scott Houin put Mount Olive ahead to stay in the sixth inning with his 11th home run of the season, a one-out solo shot. The Trojans loaded the bases and Nordan cleared them with the first of his two doubles. Richardson added an RBI single to extend the Trojans' lead to 8-3.

Mount Olive broke the game open in the seventh inning as Anthony Williams started the scoring with an RBI double. Nordan drove in a run with his 23rd double of the season and Richardson added an RBI single. Fielder's choices brought home two more runs and Josh Carter capped the inning with a two-run homer, his fifth of the season. David Cooper finished off the scoring in the eighth, coming home on a wild pitch for his fourth run of the game.

Darrell Ellis (7-1) allowed three runs on six hits in seven innings for his seventh consecutive victory. Ellis struck out four and walked three. Bradley Bradshaw and Todd Jeffreys each pitched a scoreless inning, recording two strikeouts apiece.

Mount Olive is the lone remaining unbeaten team in the double-elimination tournament. The Trojans advance to the championship game against the winner of Saturday night's contest between Pfeiffer and No. 5 seed Anderson. The winner has to defeat Mount Olive to force second "winner-takes-all" game Sunday.

The CVAC tournament champion earns an automatic bid to the South Atlantic Regional of the 2007 NCAA Division II Baseball Championship.

Friday's game

Mount Olive 6, Erskine 5, 10 innings

WILSON -- Graham Wooten hit a walk-off home run with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning lifted nationally 18th-ranked and top-seeded Mount Olive to a come-from-behind 6-5 victory over No. 4 seed Erskine on Friday in the second round of the 2007 Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference baseball tournament Friday.

Dustin Richardson's two-run single in the bottom of the ninth capped a rally from a three-run deficit to send the game into extra innings.

After scoring 16 runs in its first-round victory Thursday, Mount Olive was held scoreless through seven innings Friday as the Trojans trailed 2-0 heading into the bottom of the eighth. The Trojans used a wild pitch and a throwing error to score two runs and tie the game 2-2.

Erskine (32-21) broke the tie in the top of the ninth as Shelton Cisson's three-run homer -- his second home run of the game -- gave the Flying Fleet a 5-2 lead. Mount Olive scored a run in the bottom of the ninth after David Cooper drew a one-out bases loaded walk and Richardson singled in a pair of runs to tie the game 5-5.

Mount Olive left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, but Erskine did the same in the top of the 10th as reliever Casey Hodges (5-1) battled out of the jam on a force out.

Wooten, who entered the game as a pinch-runner in the ninth, had his first at-bat of the game with two outs in the 10th and ended the game with his sixth home run of the season.

Trojan starter Tom Layne went 7 1/3 innings, allowing two runs (one unearned) on six hits.

-- MOC sports information