WISE - - UVa-Wise held off a late West Virginia Wesleyan rally to win game one of Saturday's doubleheader 4-3 before scoring eight runs in its final two trips to the plate to claim a 13-5 win in the night cap as the Cavaliers posted a doubleheader Mountain East Conference baseball sweep at Stallard Field.
On a day that UVa-Wise (23-21, 17-9 MEC) honored its 1989 NAIA District 32 Champions, the present day Cavs jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in game one. In the home first, doubles by Tyler Blaum and David Thomas staked UVa-Wise starter Greg Duncan to a two-run lead.
An inning later, Bret Roberts' RBI ground out made it 3-0 and the score would remain unchanged until the sixth inning when West Virginia Wesleyan's (15-30, 9-17) Domonic Castillo's RBI ground out cut the deficit to two runs.
Junior Dawson Cagle pushed the lead back to three when his eighth homer of the year, a solo shot, cleared the fence.
Cagle's blast proved pivotal as the visitors from Buckhannon, W.Va. put up a fight in the seventh. After Ben Fulks lined out, Greg Smith singled only to see teammate Alex Skinner strikeout leaving the Bobcats with just one out to work with.
Eric Forbic would then double in Smith to make it a 4-2 game before scoring a batter later on an Antonio Vega base hit.
From there, UVa-Wise skipper Hank Banner inserted Nate Thompson into the game and Nick Grotti promptly met him with a single up the middle. With the tying run in scoring position and the go-ahead run on base, the junior right-hander would get Ryan Kiser to bounce out to Matthew Branham at first base for the final out of the game to notch his fifth save of the season.
Brett Yates led a seven-hit attack for the Cavs with two hits while Branham walked twice in the game.
Duncan improved to 7-3 on the season as he struck out seven, walked five and scattered three hits over 5 1/3 innings of work.
Smith finished the game 2-for-4 at the plate to lead West Virginia Wesleyan's offense in the opener.
As was the case in game one, UVa-Wise jumped out to an early lead in game two and again it was Blaum and Thomas doing the early damage.
Blaum doubled home Bret Roberts before coming around to score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of David Thomas to make it a 2-0 game after an inning of play.
The Bobcats scored an unearned run in the top of the second to make it a 2-1 game only to see the Cavs push three across in the home second.
Roberts had a sacrifice fly before back-to-back two-out hits by Blaum and Yates produced the other two runs.
A two-run homer by Eric Forbic got Wesleyan with two at 5-3 in the top of the third before a sacrifice fly from Grotti made it a one-run game in the fifth.
The Bobcats would have the tying run in the form of Forbic on third in the fifth with one out and Ben Fulks at the plate. Fulks would pop up a suicide squeeze attempt that Cavs' starter Landon Faulkner would glove and race to the third base bag for the unassisted double play ending the threat.
The play seemed to energize the UVa-Wise offense as Banner's club scored five tiems in the fifth inning to bust the game open. Tristan Peccerelli had a run-scoring single before an RBI double by Branham and sacrifice fly by Jordon Turner made it a 10-4 game. Ethan Fletcher put the finishing touches on the big inning as he homered to left centerfield making it a 12-4 contest.
Cagle tacked on a sacrifice fly in the sixth before Forbic's second homer of the game provided the final margin of 15-3.
Peccerelli finished the game 3-for-3 with three RBI while Blaum went 2-for-3 and Yates 2-for-2 in the game two triumph.
Landon Faulkner (3-6) picked up the mound win by allowing four runs (three earned) in five innings of work. The redshirt senior scattered six hits, struck out four and walked four in an 87-pitch effort.
The same two teams will be back at it tomorrow for a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
