The Elon University baseball team defeated the The Citadel Bulldogs 12-3 in Charleston, South Carolina Friday, March 6.
In a game that was held scoreless for two innings, the Phoenix scored two runs in the third inning off a 2 RBI single from junior utility playerJoey Tomko to score sophomore infielder Kory Shumate and senior outfielder Quinn Bower from second and third base. The Bulldogs immediately responded in their turn at the plate by scoring a single run in the bottom of the third.
Elon's offense ignited in the fourth and fifth innings as it scored eight runs from a variety of players.
Starting with a 2 RBI single from senior first baseman Casey Jones in the fourth, Quinn Bower, Kory Shumate and Chris King added RBI of their own in the fifth inning from singles and from a muffed pitches.
From there both offenses went quiet until the eighth and ninth inning when senior infielder Andy Moore hit a sacrifice fly to the infield to score Ryan Cooper. The Citadel would add two more runs in the eighth before Casey Jones scored on a groundout for the Phoenix in the ninth to make it a 12-3 final score.
Sophomore pitcher Matt Harris earned the win for Elon while freshman pitcher JP Sears took the loss for the Bulldogs.
The Phoenix will play the Citadel again tomorrow at 2 p.m. for the second game of the three-game series.