Bucknell University
Army
Hammond's Two-Hit Shutout Helps Baseball to Series Split at Army
4/13/2014 7:56:00 PM | Baseball
Game 1: Army 10, Bucknell 4
Game 2: Bucknell 9, Army 0
WEST POINT, N.Y. – Xavier Hammond fired a two-hit shutout to help the Bucknell baseball team to a 9-0 win over Army in game two of a doubleheader Sunday afternoon at Doubleday Field. The victory helped the Bison to both a doubleheader and series split with the Black Knights, who claimed game one by a 10-4 score.
The top two teams in the Patriot League also split a doubleheader Saturday with Bucknell (19-14-1, 9-3 PL) also winning game two in that one. The Bison remain in first place in the Patriot League standings, 1.5 games ahead of Army (22-12, 7-4 PL) and Lehigh (17-14, 7-4 PL), which swept a four-game series from Holy Cross this weekend.
Hammond (2-3) became the second Bucknell pitcher this year to log a complete game two-hitter, joining Andrew Andreychik. He struck out six and walked just two. Only one Black Knight reached scoring position and Army did not have more than one runner on base in any inning. Hammond put them down 1-2-3 in five different frames.
Hammond is now 2-1 in Patriot League play and he has allowed just three earned runs in 25.1 Patriot League innings. Sunday's performance was his first career shutout and it marked his second career complete game.
The offense gave Hammond plenty of run support as the Bison posted three multi-run innings and six members of the starting lineup drove in at least one run. Eight of the nine members of the lineup produced at least one hit and all nine reached base. The 16 hits were a season-best figure.
Bucknell had at least one baserunner in all but one inning with Corey Furman leading the way with a 5-for-5 performance. He reached base in all six of hits at bats, drove in two runs and scored two runs. All five of his career-high five hits were singles as he extended his hitting streak to 12 games. He is now hitting .404 on the year.
Joe Ogren was 3-for-4 with two RBIs, while Tommy Pennington and Greg Wasikowski also had two hits apiece from the bottom two spots in the batting order. Rob Krentzman drove in a pair of runs as well.
RBI singles by Wasikowski and Furman staked the Bison to a 2-0 lead in the second inning.
The lead extended to 5-0 in the fourth on an RBI single by Furman and a two-run single by Krentzman.
Ogren drove home a run in the fifth, while three more in the sixth rounded out the scoring. Ogren had an RBI double, Jon Mayer a sac fly and Anthony Gingerelli an RBI single in that frame.
Bucknell had the chance to score even more runs, but the Bison left 14 runners on base in the nightcap.
Army used four pitchers in the game with starter Brock Davidson (3-1) being tagged with the loss after allowing five runs and eight hits in 3.1 innings.
Game one was decided in the bottom of the third inning when Army scored eight runs on six hits and three errors against starter Andreychik (4-3) and reliever Tom Hrabchak. The Black Knights took advantage of five Bucknell errors in the game
Army totaled 11 hits in game one and Daniel Cortes led the way with three RBIs, while Jon Crucitti had three hits from the leadoff position.
Reliever Max Kra pitched the final three innings for Bucknell and yielded just one run on four hits.
The Bison got on the board in the top of the second when Gingerelli led off getting hit by a pitch and later scored on a single by Sam Clark.
Bucknell trailed 10-1 entering the top of the seventh of the seven-inning game and ended up sending eight men to the plate and scoring three runs. Furman, who was 2-for-4 in game one, drove in a pair on a two-out single, while Ogren drove in one with his own two-out single.
Army starter Gunnar Carroll (6-1) earned the win by pitching a complete game and allowing seven hits. Just one of the four runs he yielded was earned.
The Bison will continue their 10-game road trip Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Towson.
