The Elon University baseball team was in a familiar spot. For the third straight game, the Wofford College Terriers had scored first and held an early 1-0 lead in Sunday’s rubber match of a Southern Conference weekend series. For the first time all season, junior center fielder Sebastian Gomez hit in the leadoff spot. While any leadoff hitter’s job is to get on base, Gomez went the extra mile by slapping a home run to center field for the first of 14 Elon runs in a 14-3 win on Sunday afternoon.
“It was huge,” said Elon head coach Mike Kennedy about the early offensive burst. “After they scored, it let us know that we’re good, we’re okay.”
Two batters after Gomez, junior first baseman Ryan Kinsella hit a two-run shot that that gave Elon the lead for good. The Phoenix would tack on five more runs in the second inning, good enough to chase Wofford senior starting pitcher Brandon Yarusi from the game after only 1 2/3 innings.
While Elon was piling on the runs early, senior pitcher Kyle Webb settled into a groove, allowing only two earned runs over eight innings of work. The right-hander struck out six Terriers in his outing, one where he had to keep focused with his team leading by such a large score.
“It’s just about making pitches,” Webb said. “You’ve got to pretend that it’s a one-run game or a tie game. It is easy to get a big lead and think you can relax.”
Webb’s biggest nemeses on Sunday were freshman shortstop Alec Paradowski and junior right fielder Josh Hyman. Hyman was 3 for 4 with an RBI and Paradowski scored all three of the Terriers’ runs.
Unlike two previous starts against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Louisville, Webb experienced the run support to earn a victory, a relief for the Jacksonville, Fla. native.
“It helps going forward,” Webb said. “You always want to get that confidence builder. We’ve had a tough series against Louisville and that game against North Carolina, so it’s a big deal to get that win.”
His coach agreed.
“Today was huge for two reasons,” Kennedy said. “One, we wanted to stay in the (Southern Conference) race, and two, confidence. We’ve been struggling a little bit, and if we give one away today, you never know.”
As Webb’s outing continued, so did his run support. Elon scored two runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings each. Sophomore third baseman Joey Tomko and senior catcher Alex Swim had RBIs in the fifth and the hot hitting Gomez hit a two-RBI double in the sixth.
“I just got back to staying inside the ball, seeing the ball deeper,” Gomez said.
Despite the offensive success, Gomez said that his coaching staff provided encouragement after the innings where the Phoenix failed to score.
“They said, ‘Look guys, you can’t just pack it in,’” Gomez said. “It’s true. It gets us going a little bit. When we’ve got guys on base, we’ve got to drive them in.”
Gomez drove in four of those runners on Sunday, followed by three other players with two-RBI games – Kinsella, Swim, and sophomore left fielder Casey Jones. Gomez’s four hits also led the team.
Webb’s victory improved his personal record to 4-2,while Elon’s record increased to 22-20, 14-7 in conference.
Wofford fell to 16-26, 7-14 in the SoCon. The Terriers are in danger of not qualifying for the Southern Conference tournament, as only the top eight teams are invited.
Elon returns to the diamond on Tuesday for a 6:00 p.m. game at East Carolina University in Greenville.