Bulldogs ousted from CC tourney by No. 7 Mountain Lions

GASTONIA — “Two and through” describes Barton College’s experience at the NCAA Division II Conference Carolinas baseball tournament, which turned into a brief one with a 10-1 loss to nationally No. 7-ranked Young Harris on Friday afternoon at Sims Legion Field.

Barton, the No. 6 seed, slipped into the losers bracket with a 3-2 loss to third-seeded Mount Olive on Thursday evening at CaroMont Health Park and found second-seeded Young Harris waiting there after losing to 10th-seeded Belmont Abbey on Thursday.

The Bulldogs, No. 7 in the Div. II Southeast Region poll, dropped to 34-16 and now must await the NCAA Div. II regional assignments to find out if the season will continue.

Young Harris (39-12) got a great performance from starting pitcher Dylan Beck, who upped his record to 9-2 after working five innings for the win. He gave up one earned run on two hits and walked none while striking out four. His replacement, Ryan Cross, was even better with four perfect innings of relief for his third save.

Young Harris only led 3-0 through five innings, finally chasing Barton starter Matt Rivers (5-3) with one out in the fifth. The Mountain Lions, who totaled 14 hits, then scored seven runs over the last three innings for the runaway win.

Young Harris slammed three home runs, starting with Ethan Stamps’ two-run shot in the seventh. Jeremy Begora and Jack Enrico then hit back-to-back one-out solo homers in the eighth. Six more pitchers took the mound for Barton after Rivers exited but only A.J. Campbell and Ian Asken didn’t give up runs.

The Bulldogs loaded the bases with nobody out and trailing 3-0 in the sixth. Beck plunked lead-off batter Evan Harding and No. 3 hitter Tanner Halvorson before and after third baseman Jareb Beebe’s infield single.

Cross came in and got catcher Chase Waddell to fly out to deep right-center field, allowing Harding to tag and score and Beebe to advance to third.

However, Cross fanned the next two batters, Matt Rivera and Luis Sauri, and the Bulldogs didn’t get any closer than that.

Halvorson had the other hit for Barton while Enrico’s 3-for-5 performance carried Young Harris.

Score by innings:

YH 100 110 223 — 10

Barton 000 001 000 — 1

W-Dylan Beck (9-2) 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO. L-Matt Rivers (5-3) 4 1/3 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO. S-Ryan Cross (3) 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 SO.

LEADING HITTERS — Young Harris: Jack Enrico 3-5, HR, 2 R, 2 RBIs; Ethan Stamps 2-6, HR, 3 RBIs; Jeremy Begora 2-4, HR, 2 R, 2 RBIs; Drew Bray 2-5, 2 R, RBI; Marco Colina 1-4, 2B, R. Barton: Jared Beebe 1-4; Tanner Halvorson 1-2.

The post Bulldogs ousted from CC tourney by No. 7 Mountain Lions first appeared on Restoration NewsMedia .