ATHENS – The West Virginia Wesleyan baseball team mounted one of the biggest comeback of the year in game one of their Mountain East Conference doubleheader today with the Concord University Mt. Lions.
Wesleyan trailed by a 7-0 score after three innings of play before righting the ship and winning a 14-12 decision in eight innings.
Wesleyan dropped game two by a 17-2 margin.
In game one, Wesleyan used a three-run fourth inning to get back into the ball game.
Ryan Kiser hit a one-run single that scored Austin Keene, Dominic Castello singled through the left side to bring home Kiser and Hunter Rotarius hit a sacrifice fly that scored Antonio Vega.
Concord countered with four runs in the bottom of the fourth for an 11-3 advantage.
Wesleyan had one of their biggest innings of the year as they chased across seven runs in the top of the fifth.
Rotarius hit a one-run single, Kiser scored on a wild pitch, Fraser hit a one-run single, John Koon cracked a three-run double and Austin Keene hit a one-run single to account for the scoring.
That made it an 11-10 game.
Wesleyan scored two more in the top of the seventh for their first lead, at 12-11.
Kiser hit a one-run single to center field and Eric Forbrick hit a one-run single to third base.
Concord tallied an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh to deadlock the game at 12-12 and force extra innings.
With one out in the top of the eight, Greg Smith reached on an error by the Concord pitcher.
Fraser made Concord pay for that error as he tripled to right field to score Smith.
Koon then hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Fraser to wrap up the scoring.
Wesleyan outhit Concord by a 16-13 margin.
Kiser led the offense with three hits while Smith, Fraser, Koon, Keene and Castello each collected two hits.
Chris Metrick (4-0) was one of four Wesleyan pitchers as he picked up the win in a relief role.
He tossed two innings and allowed an unearned run on two hits while striking out two.
Game two belonged to Concord.
Wesleyan scored a run in the top of the fourth when Forbrick tripled home Keene and one in the fifth when Koon singled home Wyatt Adkins.
Wesleyan had eight hits in game two with Smith and Koon each getting two.
Rotarius (2-3) started the game and absorbed the loss.
The split left Wesleyan one game behind Concord in the MEC South Division standings.
Concord is now 13-7 in the MEC and 20-17 overall.
Wesleyan is currently 12-8 in the league and 14-21 overall.
Wesleyan will return to action Tuesday in a non-conference doubleheader with Salem International.
Game one will start at 3 p.m.
