May 27, 2005

Charleston, SC - East Tennessee State senior Caleb Moore is so good, he made the All-Southern Conference baseball team twice -- as a catcher and as a relief pitcher.

That's why Buccaneers coach Tony Skole, facing elimination in ETSU's final SoCon Tournament, wanted to squeeze everything he could from Moore's career, sending him to the mound Thursday for his first start of the season.

But The Citadel Bulldogs saw the bold move coming, and battered Moore for eight runs en route to a 10-6 victory in front of 2,214 fans at Riley Park.

In bashing out 13 hits, the sixth-seeded Bulldogs (24-33) rebounded from Wednesday night's 6-1 loss to Western Carolina and staved off elimination. The Citadel will play at 10 a.m. today against the loser of Thursday's Elon-Furman game.

Win, and the Bulldogs play again tonight, possibly against rival College of Charleston. Lose, and they write the final chapter in the team's first losing season since 1994.

"We've got to keep on winning," said Citadel senior Chris Ard, who had two hits and scored three runs. "We're on the brink of elimination every game now, so we know what we have to do."

Skole, who played on The Citadel's 1990 College World Series team, took a calculated risk when he started Moore, a 6-0, 205-pound senior who batted .385 this season, and also was 6-2 with 11 saves as the Bucs' closer.

But Moore had not started a game this season, and the Bulldogs got to him quickly for two runs in the first on Matt Matulia's two-run double. The Bulldogs added eight runs on eight hits and an error in the second, driving Moore from the mound after he allowed seven hits with two walks and two strikeouts.

"We took a chance," said Skole, whose team leaves the SoCon for the Atlantic Sun Conference next year. "If we are going back to Johnson City, we don't want to go back with Caleb having a full tank of gas. We want to use every ounce of energy he has, and we wanted to get off to a good start. We worried that if we got down early, Caleb would never come into play. We took a chance with it, and that's what you have to do." Citadel assistant Chris Lemonis, a teammate of Skole's with the Bulldogs, told Citadel players Wednesday night that the Bucs would likely start Moore.

"He said that's who they'd probably go with, and they did," Ard said. "And we were lucky enough to get some pitches to hit."

The Bulldogs sent 12 batters to the plate in the third, with Josh Stackley, Matt Matulia, Chris Swauger, and Brady Mashak driving in runs. Matt Covington laced a two-run triple down the left-field line, and Jon Aughey capped off the inning with an RBI single for a 10-0 lead.

Five Bulldogs had two hits each, and Matulia drove in three runs.

Sophomore pitcher Justin Smith aided the cause by working 7-1/3 innings, saving coach Fred Jordan from using up his bullpen. Smith shut out the Bucs for the first five innings, then gave up a couple of home runs to Chuck Hargis and one to Nick Crowe as ETSU climbed to within 10-6 in the eighth. But relievers Stephen Williams and Link Saunders needed just 16 pitches to finish the game.

"I think we've got enough pitching, we've just got to score some runs," Jordan said. "The deeper you go in the tournament, the more offensive it becomes."

The Citadel will start senior Griff Beckham (3-6, 6.86 ERA), who has pitched well in his last two starts, in today's first game. Ken Egleton (1-5, 6.60 ERA) or Tim Martin (0-0, 5.82) could pitch the second game -- if the Bulldogs are still alive.