Box Score Scots Hammer 17 Hits, Claim Chilly Game 1
Photos by Moriah Tant '23
MARYVILLE – Cold-weather wins are just as valuable in the USA South as are those when it's sunny and 75. As Maryville head coach Clint Helton likes to say, "It's an outdoor sport."
Maryville stayed loose despite the chill and swung the bats during Saturday's 15-5 victory over Berea in a game delayed a half-hour by snow showers. The Scots pounded out 17 hits for their highest total in a conference game this season and third-highest overall.
Zac Graham and Nelson Smith both went 4-for-5, Gabe Lopez was 3-for-4, Ian Campbell finished 3-for-5, Christian Carlton posted 2-for-4 and Kendall Catlett was 1-for-3 to account for the offensive show.
Graham Going Good
Graham with the four hits upped his team-leading batting average to .426, good for fifth in the USA South and second in the Western Division. The Florida sophomore is batting .536 (15-for-28) in conference play thus far.
"It was just seeing the ball and being aggressive at the plate," Graham said. "Just hit the fastball; don't wait on the breaking stuff.
"As a team, we've been aggressive lately. We've got to keep it up and just do our jobs. If the guy at the plate doesn't get it done, the guy coming up next will have his back. At the beginning of the season, I was a little shaky with my approach. But I took some time, and my approach has been the same ever since."
The Scots kept up a recent trend by scoring in six of their eight turns at bat. The middle innings were when they did their most damage, scoring four, four and three runs in the fourth through sixth frames.
Three Innings, Five RBIs
Smith was a huge part of that surge. The Maryville left fielder contributed an RBI-single in the fourth to make it 4-2, a long two-run homer onto the football field in the fifth that made it 11-4, and a two-run single down the line in left in the sixth that upped the score to 14-5.
The home run was Smith's second on the season and the five RBIs in the game were a career high. Smith also stole three bases, and he leads the team with 12.
Lopez with four runs batted in matched his career high from way back in his rookie season. The Maryville shortstop is batting .500 (13-for-26) in conference play and added two stolen bases to increase his season total to 10.
"We came out a little flat to be honest, but it was a strange day," Helton said. "That's part of playing an outside sport. You can't control the weather but you can control being ready to go, and we weren't quite ready in the first couple of innings.
"But we figured it out and we did swing it well today."
Leonhardt Wins No. 6
All this offense supported starter Bryce Leonhardt, who went five innings and improved to 6-1 on the season to tie for third in the conference in victories. Leonhardt allowed four runs, three earned, on six hits and struck out three against just one walk.
Maryville relievers Tommy Musuras, Jakob Kerr and Jose Rodriguez limited the Mountaineers to just a single run on two hits over the final four innings.
The series concludes Sunday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader.
"We've got to come out ready to go Sunday," Helton said. "They will try to do the same thing."
