Purple Takes Game One, 7-5
October 05, 2010 | Baseball
Oct. 5, 2010
Box Score 
l Game 1 Play-by-Play
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Zach Woods tossed five innings of shutout ball, while Jacob Davis and Timothy Younger each pounded out three hits to lead Purple to a 7-5 win over the Gold in game one of the Purple-Gold World Series Tuesday night at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Woods (1-0), the 2010 Conference USA Newcomer-of-the-Year and second-team selection, allowed a pair of runners to reach base in the first and fourth frames, but got solid defensive play at the hot corner from John Wooten, who turned a pair of inning-ending 5-4-3 double plays. Seth Simmons picked up the save after working two innings, where he allowed one run (earned), walked one and struck out two. Freshman Austin Chrismon had a scoreless inning of relief, while Jamie McGhee gave up four runs (all earned) on six hits in two innings.
Senior Seth Maness (0-1) suffered the loss after surrendering five runs (one earned) on nine hits with three strikeouts in four innings. Tyler Joyner allowed a run in 1 2/3 innings, while Lance Honeycutt gave up one in 2 1/3 frames. Freshman Dario Santangelo tossed a scoreless ninth with a punch-out and a pair of walks.
In the third inning, the Purple pushed across five runs on five hits to take an early 5-0 lead. With one out, Trent Whitehead and Younger collected back-to-back singles before Wooten reached on a throwing error by Drew Reynolds, which allowed Whitehead to score and put runners on first and second. Chris Gosik doubled down the left field line scoring Younger and moving Wooten to third.
Junior College transfer MIchael Ussery's sac bunt to first scored Wooten, Gosik crossed home on Ben Fultz' single to left and Davis doubled down the right field line plating Fultz for the final run.
The Purple added a run in the sixth when Wooten drew a bases loaded walk off of Honeycutt to extend the lead to 6-0. Davis collected his third-straight hit of the game to start the frame with a single through the left side. Will Connerley was hit by pitch and Younger loaded the bases on the first of four Honeycutt walks in the contest.
A four-run seventh pulled the Gold within two, 6-4. Bryan Bass, Jonathan Holt and Austin Blake stroked three consecutive singles with one out to plate the first run. Joshua Lovick's sac fly to right field scored Holt and freshman Jack Reinheimer cleared the bases with a two-RBI single scoring Blake and Philip Clark.
Wooten singled home Whitehead in the eighth inning pushing the Purple lead back to three, 7-4. Whitehead reached base for the third time of the evening with a leadoff walk then took second on Younger's third base knock, a single through the left side, setting up Wooten's RBI shot to left center.
Gold had a chance to tie the game in the ninth when freshman Chase McDonald stepped into the box with runners on first and second. Holt was hit by a Simmons fast ball and Blake drew a walk setting up the showdown, but Simmons fanned McDonald and got Clark to ground out for the second out of the frame. After a wild pitch scored Holt and moved Blake up to third, Simmons struck out Reinheimer to end the game at 7-5.
Both teams combined for 23 hits, while the pitching staffs fanned 15.
The second game of the Purple-Gold World Series will take place Wednesday night at 7 p.m. with Kevin Brandt (Purple) and Brad Mincey (Gold) taking the hill for their respective squads.
