Feb. 28, 2004

Box Score

Charleston, SC - Phillip Coker connected for two hits and drove-in two runs to lead College of Charleston over The Citadel 5-4 in the second game of the Homewood Suites Tournament Saturday afternoon in Riley Park.

The Citadel (2-4), who lost earlier in the day to NC State 3-1, jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after four innings with one run in the first and one in the third. In the first, Chris Altman singled in Chris Ard to give the Bulldogs an early 1-0 advantage. Ard, who scored from third on Altman's single, reached on an infield hit.

In the third, the Dogs used consecutive infield singles by Jon Aughey and Josh Stackley and a sacrifice bunt by Ard to get runners into scoring position. Aughey, who moved to third on Ard's sac-bunt, scampered home on a RBI-groundout by Chip Cannon, which gave The Citadel a 2-0 lead. CofC (5-1) responded with a run in the top of the fifth, cutting the Bulldog lead in half, 2-1. After a lead off walk by Brian Hastings and a Chris Campbell single, Coker got his first RBI of the day as he groundout to third, allowing Hastings to scored.

The Bulldogs answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the fourth that pushed the lead back to two runs, 3-1. With two outs, Stackley beat out his second infield hit of the day and proceeded to steal second to put himself in position to score. Ard, who helped manufacture the run in the third and scored the Dogs' run in the first, drilled a single to left that drove-in Stackely for The Citadel's third run of the game.

Down 3-1, the Cougars rallied for four runs in the sixth on three runs and a Bulldog error. With runners on first and second, CofC's Jess Easterling attempted a sacrifice bunt, but Citadel pitcher Ken Egleton threw the ball away trying to keep Mark Lyons from advancing to third. The Egleton error allowed Lyons to trot home. After a walk to load the bases, Campbell singled off the pitcher's leg to score Brett Anderson on an infield hit. The Cougars scored their next two runs on a RBI fielder's choice by Brett Gardner and a run scoring single by Coker, which gave CofC a 5-3 lead.

The Citadel attempted a comeback in the ninth scoring one run on a Ard RBI-single, but failed to tie the score as Chip Cannon groundout with the bases loaded to end the game with the score 5-4 in favor of the College of Charleston.

Ryan Johnson (2-0) pitched six innings, giving up three runs on nine hits to earn the victory, while Brett Harker worked the last three innings to earn his first save of the season. Citadel starter Ken Egleton (0-1) took the loss as he surrendered five runs, two earned, on five hits in 5.1 innings of work.

The Citadel will travel to The Rainbow Easter Classic in Hawaii next week for five games against Chicago State, Hawaii and Oregon State, while CofC will play NC State in a double-header on Sunday, February 29 at 11 am in Riley Park. The CofC-NC State double-header will wrap-up the 2004 Homewood Suites Tournament.