JONESBORO, Ark. – The Chicago State baseball team dropped its fifth consecutive road contest Friday night after suffering a 15-0 defeat at the hands of host Arkansas State at Tomlinson Stadium & Kell Field. The Red Wolves hiked their season record to 14-18 on the year, while the Cougars saw their record fall to 3-30.
The first three innings of the contest looked to be a pitcher's duel between CSU freshman starter Gregory Day (East Chicago, IN/East Chicago Central) (East Chicago, Ind.) and ASU senior starter Chase Ware with both pitchers stopping possible scoring opportunities.
The home team claimed a 7-0 advantage in the fourth inning thanks to seven hits, highlighted by a two-run double by sophomore Todd Baumgartner. Senior Lawson Hipps, junior Cody Pace, senior Brandon Eller and senior Guy Brown also recorded RBI singles for ASU.
Hipps led off the fifth inning with a triple off Day to right center and scored on the next play on junior Giovanni Garcia's RBI double to left field which increased the Red Wolves' leading margin to 8-0.
ASU added three more runs in the sixth inning to hike its lead to 11-0 following an RBI double from senior Derrick Coleman, a run-scoring single by Hipps and an RBI sacrifice fly by Garcia.
The Red Wolves increased their advantage after scoring four runs in the seventh inning which included a three-run triple by Coleman to right field off Cougar relief pitcher James King (Saginaw, MI/Arthur Hill HS) (Saginaw, Mich.) for the final margin.
Baumgartner led ASU at the plate by hitting 4-for-6 with two doubles and scored three runs, while Hipps hit 3-for-4 with two RBI and scored twice. Ware (4-1) threw six shutout innings and allowed only three CSU hits to earn the win for the Red Wolves which included six strikeouts and three walks.
Four players recorded a hit on the offensive end for the Cougars. Day (0-2) took the loss after giving up 11 runs on 15 hits in six innings of work, while recording three strikeouts and three walks.
Both teams will battle against this afternoon at Tomlinson Stadium & Kell Field with a start time of 2 p.m., with the game being live on the internet at www.gocsucougars.com.
~CSU~
