May 23, 2004

Charleston, SC - What a difference a sweep makes.

The Citadel baseball team, slumping with six straight losses entering the weekend, now brings renewed confidence to the Southern Conference Tournament.

The Bulldogs completed a three-game sweep of UNC Greensboro with a 7-3 victory before 1,215 fans at Riley Park on Saturday, and proclaimed themselves ready for the tournament, which starts Wednesday at Riley Park.

"Coach Jordan always talks about getting momentum heading into the tournament," said sophomore centerfielder Matt Covington, who scored two runs Saturday. "And winning three games against UNC Greensboro, that's about as close as you can get to getting some momentum going."

Fred Jordan's Bulldogs wrapped up the regular season with a 33-25 overall record, 21-9 in the SoCon. That's good for a second-place tie with Georgia Southern, but the Eagles earned the No. 2 seed for the SoCon tournament due to their series sweep of The Citadel last week. The Bulldogs will be the No. 3 seed, and will face the No. 6 seed at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday on opening day of the double-elimination tournament. The No. 6 seed will be either East Tennessee State or Davidson, depending on the outcome of those teams' weekend series.

"We hope this is what we needed," said Jordan, whose team was 15-0 in SoCon games at Riley Park this season. "We played some pretty good baseball this weekend. We pitched well, played outstanding defense and got some timely two-out hits."

Indeed, the best news for the Bulldogs this weekend was the effectiveness of their starting pitchers. After the team was roughed up for 35 runs in three losses at Georgia Southern, starters Jon Ellis, Ken Egleton and Chip Cannon each turned in solid outings in limiting the Spartans (33-19-1, 16-14) to seven runs in three games.

Cannon (4-3) scattered five hits over seven innings, allowing one earned run and striking out eight in Saturday's game. Egleton (7-2) went seven innings in Friday's 6-1 victory, and Ellis (9-4) pitched a complete game in Thursday's 7-3 win. With an extra day off before the tournament starts Wednesday, The Citadel's pitching should set up well.

"Jon, Ken and Chip all did really well and bounced back from last weekend," Covington said. "Jon kind of set the tone for the weekend, and Ken and Chip did a great job following him."

And the Dogs' bullpen gave up just one run in four innings over the weekend.

"I was pleased with our strike percentage, and we had better command of the breaking ball," Jordan said. "But we battled last weekend at Georgia Southern, and those things happen. These guys are resilient and the put it behind them, and I commend them on a good weekend."

The Spartans jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first, scoring two runs on two hits and an error. But the Bulldogs jumped right back with three runs in the bottom of the first, as Covington singled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Chris Ard's single. Spartans rightfielder Jay Maule never saw Cannon's routine fly ball, and it fell in for a double and two more runs for a 3-2 lead.

The Bulldogs took a 5-2 lead in the second on Josh Stackley's two-run double down the left-field line, and scored a run without a hit in the third. Jon Aughey reached on an error, moved to second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored on Will Coker's groundout for a 6-2 lead.

Ard had three hits and Stackley and Cannon each drove in two runs for the Bulldogs.

Ryan Falcon (2-6) took the loss for the Spartans, who have lost seven of their last 11 games.