April 16, 2005

Charleston - Chris Ard drifted near the College of Charleston dugout, squeezed a foul ball for the final out and slipped the baseball quickly into his back pocket for safekeeping.

This was one to remember for The Citadel, which eased the frustrations of the first half of the season with a 6-4 victory over 19th-ranked rival College of Charleston in front of 1,682 fans Friday night at Riley Park.

Ard and injury-plagued second baseman Jon Aughey each belted home runs, and pitchers Ryan Owens and Link Saunders slowed down the best-hitting team in the nation as The Citadel handed the Cougars their first Southern Conference loss of the season.

"Hopefully, this can be a turning point for us," said Aughey, whose two-run homer in the seventh, his first of the season, snapped a 3-3 tie. "We've been playing as hard as we can day in and day out, and we keep going through speed bumps. You feel like you keep getting punched in the nose.

"But we've got to keep plugging along and hope everything falls into place."

The Bulldogs (14-19, 6-10) are scrapping for a spot in the eight-team SoCon Tournament they've won seven times, including last year.

"We're fighting for our lives, so we're going

to play every one like it's our last one," Citadel coach Fred Jordan said.

The Cougars (27-6, 12-1) had won 39 of their last 44 regular-season SoCon games, and had not dropped one since a 10-2 loss to Elon on May 23, 2004.

"We've got to come back ready to play," said Cougars coach John Pawlowski, whose team won the SoCon regular-season title last year. "Whether it's a conference loss or not, the key is, how do you react to it. We've got to react well and find a way to get it done (today)." Owens (4-3), a junior left-hander, allowed seven hits and three runs in seven innings, and controlled the speedy top of the Cougars' order. Phillip Coker, Brett Gardner and Byron Barber -- each batting higher than .400 -- were a combined 1 for 11 and did not score a run. Owens retired 10 straight batters at one point, and got third baseman Jess Easterling to pop up with the bases loaded in the sixth. Gardner and Barber both popped up with two runners on in the seventh.

"They are a power-hitting team, and I think they were swinging too hard," Owens said. "I was just throwing it in there and letting them hit it. I guess it looked big to them coming in there, and they swung hard and popped it up."

Charleston, leading the nation with a .378 batting average, had nine hits and was held to four runs or fewer for just the fourth time this season.

"I think their guy threw the ball very well, and we couldn't come up with big hits," Pawlowski said. "They came up big in a couple of situations and deserved to win."

Ard's first homer of the season, a three-run shot over the scoreboard in left, gave The Citadel a 3-2 lead in the fifth. The Cougars had scored twice in the top of the inning on Easterling's run-scoring single and Brian Hastings' double off the wall in left.

The Cougars tied it at 3-3 in the seventh after Brett Anderson's pop-up to right fell among Aughey, first baseman Chris Swauger and rightfielder Josh Stackley. Anderson went to second on a sacrifice and scored on pinch-hitter Matt Kirkpatrick's single, but Owens escaped without further damage.

Aughey, who missed 16 games with a fractured bone in his left wrist and was batting just .182 coming in, broke the tie in the seventh. After Will Coker's one-out single, Aughey got a 2-1 pitch from Ryan Edell (4-1) up in the wind blowing out to left, and it sailed over the wall for a 5-3 lead.

"I was pretty much sitting on a fastball and looking for something I could yank," he said. "I was looking to hit it pretty good and got the pitch and was lucky enough to get it up in the air."

A passed ball gave The Citadel an insurance run in the eighth. Cougars pinch-hitter Shawn Williams hit a one-out solo shot to center to make it 6-4 in the ninth, but Saunders got Coker and Gardner to pop up for his third save.

The teams meet again at 2 p.m. today.