FitzPatrick's Game-Winning Single Leads Davidson to 7-6 Win in Baseball

Monday, March 10

Davidson, N.C.

4:00 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

Yale

FitzPatrick's Game-Winning Single Leads Davidson to 7-6 Win in Baseball

3/10/2008 6:51:12 PM | Baseball

Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID

Box Score

DAVIDSON, N.C. — Junior Chase FitzPatrick went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of eighth inning to lead the Davidson baseball team to a two-game series sweep of visiting Yale with a 7-6 victory at Wilson Field on Monday, Mar. 10. The Wildcats took a 4-2 decision on Sunday in the first game of the series.

Davidson ran its winning streak to three straight to improve to 6-8 overall and evened its home mark to 6-6. Yale fell to 2-5 on the season.

With the score tied at 6-all, junior Pat Brady started the eighth with a line-drive double to right-center. He advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Hugh Eden. The Wildcats' next batter, Brett Shore, was intentionally walked, but was thrown out trying to steal second base, setting up FitzPatrick's late-game heroics.

The junior stepped into the box and took the first pitch for a ball, before then jumping on the next pitch and punching it through the right side for an RBI single and a 7-6 Wildcat lead.

Freshman Mike Frongello earned his second save in as many days, and fourth on the season, when he worked out of a two-on, one-out jam by striking out Jake Doyle and forcing pinch-hitter Trygg Larsson-Danforth to hit into a fielder's choice to end the game.

FitzPatrick also added a two-run jack, his second of the season, to dead-center to give the Wildcats an early 2-0 lead in bottom half of the first inning.

Matching FitzPatrick at the plate was first baseman Jay Honeycutt, who continues to flash his early season power. The sophomore went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and a big three-run homer in the fifth that brought Davidson back from a 5-2 deficit. The home run was his seventh of the season and pushed his team-leading RBI total to 21.

Yale knotted things up at 2-apiece after FitzPatrick's long-ball with single runs in the second and third innings, using an RBI single and one of its four home runs on the day. Ryan Lavarnway hit the first of his two bombs in the third to tie the score, and then added a two-run tater in the fifth that gave Yale a 4-2 lead at the time. The Bulldogs' catcher finished 3-for-4 with three runs batted in and two runs scored.

Jake Doyle and Andrew Kolmar also added long balls for the Bulldogs, with Kolmar's giving them a brief 6-5 lead in the sixth.

Davidson tied things up again in the bottom half of the sixth on a sac fly off the bat of Shore to plate Tommy Piacenza, who started the frame off with a single up the middle.

Freshman Mike Sliwiak was credited with the win as he pitched a perfect inning of relief to improve to 2-0 in the season. Chris Kennedy started the game for Davidson, giving up five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. He did strike out a season-high seven Bulldogs.

John Henry Davis suffered the loss on the mound as he gave up the game-winning single and finished with one inning pitched, allowing one run on three hits and striking out three.

Davidson takes an eight-day break before playing host to Columbia on Mar. 18 at 6 p.m. in the first of a short two-game series, before starting Southern Conference play with a three-game series against College of Charleston, Mar. 21-23.