Buies Creek, N.C. - The #26 Hatters baseball team split Saturday's doubleheader with the Fighting Camels and won its first conference series of the season. Stetson (12-3, 2-1 A-Sun) won the first game of the day 12-1 and Campbell (7-9, 1-5 A-Sun) took the nightcap 7-2 for its first A-Sun win of the season. The Hatters, who scored 28 runs on 32 hits over the weekend, also won Friday night's league-opener 14-3.
In today's first game sophomore Kurt Schluter (Jupiter, Fla.) improved to 3-0 on the season after tossing six innings of shutout ball. He allowed three hits and struck out five batters. Junior Tucker Donahue (Coral Springs, Fla.) pitched the final two innings giving up one run on three hits and striking out two. The game was shortened to eight innings due to the A-Sun's 10-run rule for conference doubleheaders. Frank Zier (Frederik, Md.) took the loss for the Camels and fell to 0-1.
Catcher Nick Rickles (Loxahatchee, Fla.) and first baseman Trey Blackman (Altamonte Springs, Fla.) were the offensive heroes for the Hatters. Rickles was 3-for-5 with a double, a run scored and three RBI. Blackman was 1-for-3 with a bases loaded double, four RBI and a run scored. Bunnell's Mark Jones Belted his first home run of the season and scored a pair of runs.
"We told the guys stay with it and hang tough until we can break through and we did. What I'm most proud of is that we just kept building the lead, and building the lead", said Stetson head coach Pete Dunn. "After last night's game we said we had to play better defense and cut our strike outs down. We did a better job today. We are still not where we need to be but it was an improvement over last night".
Stetson's defense, however, did not look as sharp in the day's second game with a total of four errors leading to three unearned runs.
Campbell's Ryan Koopman (Tipp City, Ohio) pitched a complete game allowing two runs on eight hits and improving to 3-2 on the season. He threw 141 pitches in a marathon performance. Will Dorsey (Atlantic Beach, Fla.) started for Stetson and gave up four runs and six hits over 2.1 innings. He did not strike out or walk a batter and fell to 2-2 on the season.
Although the Hatters dropped game two junior Robert Crews (Port Charlotte, Fla.) came alive at the plate with three hits in four at bats. For the doubleheader he was 5-for-7 with two doubles and three runs scored. With Friday night's 2-for-4 effort at the plate included Crews improved his batting average 87 points in three games going from .209 to .296. Also looking good at the plate in the second game of the doubleheader was Jones who had a pair of hits. Jones was intentionally walked three times in the series.
The Hatters will now return home to host Siena on Tuesday and Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. each night. Stetson fans can see the games on Hatter Vision at GoHatters.com with Bill Topping calling the action. Tickets are available at the gate or can be purchased online at GoHatters.com or by calling 738-HATS.
