Black Takes Series Title, 9-2
October 17, 2008 | Baseball
Oct. 17, 2008
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Trent Ashcraft drove in five runs to help the Black (2-1) squad to a 9-2 win over the Purple (1-2) Friday night in the rubber-match game of the 2008 Purple/Black World Series at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Leading 3-1 in the bottom of the third inning, Ashcraft single-handly put the game out of reach when he took a Mark Wilder pitch to right field clearing the bases for a 7-1 lead. Devin Harris singled to left with one out then moved to third on Drew Schieber's single to right. After Schieber stole second to put runners on second and third, Harris scored when Brett Bowers took second on an error, which also moved Schieber to third. Philip Clark loaded the bases with two outs on a walk setting up Ashcraft's at-bat.
Sthil Sowers (1-0) got the win for the Black after allowing two runs on four hits in 4.1 innings of work where he fanned five and walked one. Brad Mincey closed the game working 1.2 innings of scoreless ball with four strikeouts. The righty entered the game with the bases loaded in the fifth and one out to get the Black out of the jam by striking out Trent Whitehead and Dustin Harrington.
Mike Anderson (0-1), who missed the 2008 season with an injury, suffered the loss after working one inning where he allowed two runs on one hit. Wilder worked 1.2 innings allowing four runs, while Seth Simmons gave up three runs on two hits in two innings of relief work. Joe O'Malley made his second appearance of the series (0.1 IP) allowing a hit.
Brandon Henderson got the scoring under way early in the first when he blasted Sowers pitch over the left field wall for a Purple 1-0 lead.
The Black answered with two runs in the bottom of the frame on Harris' two-RBI double to left field scoring Ryan Wood from second and Kyle Roller from first for a 2-1 advantage.
Kevin Brandt scored on a wild pitch for the Purple closing the score to 7-2 in the top half of the third.
Ashcraft capped the scoring at 9-2 in the fifth for the Black squad when he singled up the middle scoring Schieber and Bowers.
Harris and Ashcraft each collected two hits for the Black team, while Bowers, Clark and Schieber each had one hit. For the Purple, Brandt, Davis, Freeman and Henderson each had a hit.
