One week ago, senior Alex Swim twice found himself at the plate with runners in scoring position in a tie game - once in the bottom of the ninth inning and once in the bottom of the eleventh. Twice Swim was easily dispatched as the game moved on.
“I was in that situation twice last weekend and I didn’t come through,” Swim said. “That stuff sticks with you.”
Following last week’s contest, Swim didn’t go home after the game. He didn’t even go back to the home first base dugout. Instead, he went to the batting cage in right field, grabbed a tee and a bucket of baseballs and hit.
On Friday March 8, the senior found himself at the plate again in the bottom of the tenth inning, this time with a runner on second base with two outs. After running the count full against senior right hander Drew Freie, Swim got a pitch he could handle and looped it to shallow left center field, scoring sophomore center fielder Quinn Bower from second base to give the Phoenix a 3-2 win against the visiting College of Charleston Cougars in game one of a three game set.
“When you’re the No. 3 or No. 4 hitter, you want to come through and be the RBI guys for the team, especially in those situations,” Swim said. “It was good to finally come through tonight.”
Prior to the at bat, Swim had gone 1-4 against the Cougars Matt Pegler. The senior right-hander was selected as the preseason Pitcher of the Year in the Southern Conference just in front of Elon left-hander Dylan Clark. The two went toe to toe on Friday, but neither factored into the decision.
“They’re two of the best pitchers in the league by far,” said Elon head coach Mike Kennedy. “Clark pitched out of some trouble. That’s what he does. He never gives in. He’s tough as nails. (Pegler) is really, really good and he gave us fits. That was fun to watch those two go at it. It was a really well pitched game.”
Clark ran into trouble early when he gave up five hits in the first two innings, including a second inning leadoff home run to freshman infielder Carl Wise on a 2-2 fastball left up in the strike zone. Through the next 6.1 innings, Clark gave up five more hits on his way to tying his career high in innings pitched with 8 1/3 and falling one short of tying the most pitches he’s throw in an outing with 111.
“Once I settled in, I was moving my pitches around and I had them all going,” Clark said. “They hit me a little bit the first time through but I felt like I had my good stuff in the bullpen. They got a couple singles and I gave up the solo home run early, but I wasn’t even worried about that. When I go, I never expect to come out early. I just go out and throw as long as Coach wants me out there.”
Four days prior to meeting Pegler and the Cougars, the Phoenix put up 17 runs in the first three innings against No. 8 North Carolina State University. Through three innings on Friday, Elon didn’t have a hit. That is until Swim broke through with the first base knock for the Phoenix with one out in the fourth inning.
One inning later, sophomore designated hitter Chris King put the Phoenix on top for the first time on the afternoon with a two-run home run to left field, the opposite side of the park for the lefty.
“He’s a strong kid,” Kennedy said. “He got a pitch that he could get the barrel of the bat on and he got it up. He’s just a physical, strong kid and when you get the barrel on it like he did, that’s what’s going to happen.”
Clark ran into trouble again in the seventh inning when freshman second baseman Blake Butler singled. He later scored on sophomore shortstop Gunnar Heidt’s single through the right side that tied the game. That set the wheels in motion for senior Andrew MacDonald in the Elon bullpen.
The Elon starter escaped the danger with a double play ball following the game-tying single. That was the last trouble he would face all afternoon, as the senior sent the Cougars down in order in the top of the eighth inning, as he finished the frame with 102 pitches.
Instead of turning the game over to MacDonald in the ninth, Kennedy sent Clark back to the hill.
“He was still in the 100-115 range,” Kennedy said. “He was feeling good and still making pitches. We didn’t want to throw (MacDonald) a ton because we know we’re probably going to have to use him again. He got the first guy out, then walked the second one and I went and got him.”
After allowing runners to reach base, Kennedy made the decision to turn the game over to MacDonald and the bullpen.
MacDonald, like Clark did in the seventh, used a double play ball to escape the inning and keep the game tied at two.
Elon went quietly in the bottom of the ninth, as did the Cougars in the top of the tenth. The Phoenix struck in the bottom of the tenth against Freie, but in unordinary fashion.
King led off the inning with a booming single down the left field line. A nice relay from the fence threw King out trying to stretch the hit into a double. Bower followed with a walk and promptly stole second while junior shortstop Antonio Alvarez was in the process of striking out. Swim came up next, figuratively put the ball on a tee like he had a week before with a 3-2 count and expecting a fastball. He got his fastball and knew exactly what to do with it, sending the Phoenix home two games over .500 for the first time this season at 7-5.
“I just tried to take deep breaths and see the ball,” Swim said. “He threw a few pitches and I fouled one off so I had a pretty good sense of timing on it. So I got the timing down, put a good swing on it and got the run in.”
MacDonald picked up his third win of the season thanks to Swim’s late-inning heroics. Freie took his second loss of the season to drop his record to 2-2.
With the Cougars departing the Southern Conference next season for the Colonial Athletic Association, the two teams will continue their final three game set as conference rivals tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. Elon will send junior righthander Kyle Webb to the hill. He will be opposed by Cougars senior left-hander Jake Zokan.