WILSON, N.C.—Anderson University continued its Cinderella story by knocking off second seed and No. 24 nationally ranked Erskine College, 8-4, in an elimination game on day three of the Conference Carolinas Baseball Tournament at historic Fleming Stadium Saturday.
The No. 6 seed Trojans (19-33 overall) – who only had three road wins on the season heading into the double-elimination tournament – have now upset the top two seeds in the conference tourney. Anderson will next play the lone undefeated team in the tourney, No. 4 seed Pfeiffer University, at 7 p.m. Saturday night.
Senior starter Brady Peele provided Anderson with a gutsy performance on the mound, tossing his first complete game of the season. Peele (4-3) scattered eight hits and allowed four early runs on three Erskine home runs but settled down for the 106-pitch victory. The right-hander from St. George, S.C., kept the vaunted Flying Fleet offense that leads the nation in home runs off the scoreboard for the final six innings.
Peele got all the run support he needed in the first two innings as Anderson jumped out to a 6-0 advantage with three runs in each of the first two frames. The Trojans ripped five hits off Erskine starter Derek Smith in the early surge, capped by a two-run homer to right-center by Blake May in the second inning. Smith (5-2) only lasted 1 2/3 innings in the loss, allowing six runs (three earned) on those five hits.
Derek Hipp led off the game with a single up the middle and later scored on a single by May, who finished with a game-high three RBI. Ryan Saxon followed with a double that plated May before scoring the third Trojan run on a single by Matt Hill. Anderson doubled up its lead in the second with three unearned runs. Two consecutive Erskine errors set the table for May to hit his fourth round-tripper of the season.
Erskine (37-14) used its strength to pull within two runs, 6-4, by hitting a trio of home runs in the early innings. John Bolding put the Fleet on the board with a solo blast to right field in the second before Bryan Fogle and Bolding hit back-to-back jacks in the third that both flew past the scoreboard located behind the left field wall. Fogle’s two-run shot increased his national-leading total to 27 home runs. Bolding’s 16th dinger of the season was the last Erskine extra-base hit in the game as Peele settled down for the final six innings.
A pair of solo home runs extended the final margin of victory to four runs for Anderson. Hipp smacked his fourth home run to right in the fourth while Saxon crushed his ninth homer over the left-center field fence in the seventh.
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