April 2, 2008
BOX SCORE
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Longwood University dropped an 8-7 baseball decision on the road at Virginia Tech Wednesday evening in Blacksburg. The Lancers are now 17-11 this season, while the Hokies of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) improved to 10-18. Longwood will play again on Saturday, April 5, at James Madison University of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) beginning at 12 p.m. in Harrisonburg.
Longwood took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and added another run in the second for a 3-0 advantage before the Hokies took control with all eight of their runs in the third inning. During the decisive inning for the hosts, all of the damage was done with two outs in the inning as seven of the runs were unearned after a fielding error by the visitors. The Lancers did make things interesting with one run in the eighth and three more runs in the ninth inning for the final margin.
In the first, junior Paul Heidler II/Warrenton (Notre Dame Academy) (1-5) led-off the game with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Heidler scored on an RBI double by sophomore Phil Cerreto/Midlothian (Midlothian) (4-5, 3 RBI), who had four hits and three RBI, and Cerreto crossed the plate on an RBI single from classmate Casey Havers/Thorofare, N.J. (West Deptford) (3-5, RBI), who had three hits. In the second, freshman Brant Jones/Richmond (Monacan) (3-4) reached on a bunt-single to lead-off and later scored ahead of a run-down third out between first and second base. In the eighth, Cerreto led-off with a single and later crossed the plate on a double-play ground out. In the ninth, freshman Jonathan Watson/Richmond (L.C. Bird) (0-2) reached on a fielder's choice and scored on a two-out RBI double by classmate Justin Morreim/Virginia Beach (Frank W. Cox) (2-5, RBI). Cerreto drove-in the final two runs with a two-out RBI single but was stranded at first base.
Sophomore Lance Harting/Ballston Spa, N.Y. (Ballston Spa) (4-2) took the pitching loss for Longwood with the first 2.2 innings, allowing nine hits and eight runs, one earned, with one strikeout and two walks. Freshman Chris Briere/Midlothian (James River) pitched 2.1 innings of scoreless middle relief, yielding two hits with one strikeout and two walks.
Virginia Tech was led by Austin Wates (2-5, RBI), Sean O’Brien (2-3, RBI), Anthony Sosnoskie (2-4), Matt Blow (2-4, RBI), Steve Bumbry (2-4, RBI) who each contributed two hits while Klint Reed (1-5, 2 RBI) and Tony Balisteri (1-4, 2 RBI) each had two RBI. Rob Waskiewicz (2-1) earned the mound win with 4.2 innings of relief, scattering five hits and four runs, one earned, with one strikeout and one walk. Rhett Ballard (2) earned his second save with the final out of the contest, though he did allow the two-run single by Cerreto.
