BETHANY, WV – Chatham Baseball (10-10, 2-2 PAC) swept their doubleheader at Bethany (6-10, 2-2) on Wednesday afternoon by scores of 7-4 and 14-5.
The Cougars grabbed the lead in the top of the first inning in game one when
Devin Fluhmann scored on
Caleb Jones' fielder's choice. After the Bison took the lead in the bottom half of the inning,
Angelo DeLeonardis doubled home
Tyler Cote in the second to tie the score at 2.
Cooper Baxter's single later in the inning plated
Ty Blackburn and DeLeonardis to give Chatham the lead. DeLeonardis scored again on a wild pitch in the fourth inning. The Cougars got out to a 7-2 advantage in the fifth when DeLeonardis singled in
Nolan Boehm and Blackburn scored on a wild pitch. Bethany scored 2 runs in the ninth, but
Ethan Botkin came in to slam the door and give Chatham the 3-run victory.
Cason Bennett earned the win on the mound, going 6.2 innings and allowing no runs on five hits with two strikeouts. Botkin was credited with a save for his scoreless, hitless inning to finish the game. DeLeonardis went 2-4 with 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored.
Cooper Baxter also drove in 2 runs, going 1-3 at the plate with a walk.
Tyler Cote was 2-5 and scored a run. The Cougars drew 10 walks in the first game.
In game two, Chatham scored 5 runs in the first three innings of the game. Cote's sac fly in the first brought home
Eddie Rueda. Then Fluhmann's base hit in the second brought in two Cougars to make the score 3-0. Baxter's 2-RBI single in the third pushed the Chatham lead to 5-0. Cote scored on an error in the fifth, then the Cougars put 3 runs across in the seventh. Fluhmann's doubled plated DeLeonardis, Baxter scored on a wild pitch and then Fluhmann scored on a wild pitch to make the advantage 10-0. The Bison scored twice in the seventh to keep the game alive, but Chatham scored 2 more in the eighth with
Peter Tadic coming home on a balk and
Kayden Leck scoring on an error. After 3 Bethany runs in the bottom half of the inning, Baxter crossed the plate on a Rueda ground out and Leck singled in Fluhmann to wrap up the Cougars' 9-run win and the sweep.
Matt Bamford started on the bump for Chatham and gave up just two hits and no runs with nine strikeouts in six innings.
Garrett Blosser tossed a scoreless inning to close out the game. At the plate,
Devin Fluhmann finished game two 3-6 with 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored.
Cooper Baxter went 2-3, drove in two and scored twice, and
Kayden Leck was 1-3, scored a run and drove in a run.
Chatham will host the strike out suicide game on Saturday against Allegheny, with the doubleheader at West Field beginning at 2 p.m.
