Furman pitching shuts down Catamounts

Adam Martin tags out base runner at home plate - Photo by Mark Haskett  

Furman's Matt Solter pitched seven solid innings, on the way to Furman's 3-2 victory over top seed Western Carolina in tournament action Wednesday afternoon at Joseph P. Riley Park.

Furman's win over Western Carolina was their third win in four meetings this year. The Paladins took two of three from the Cats in Cullowhee during the regular season. Including today, Furman pitching has surrendered just three runs to Western Carolina in the last 20 innings of play between the two teams.

"Matt Solter was just outstanding today on three days rest. He really competed very well," said Furman head coach Ron Smith, "We played clean defense and were able to scratch an early run across. The runs we got in the seventh inning were huge. We had a couple of early opportunities with runners on second base and less than two outs but couldn't get them in, which I was afraid was going to come back and haunt us. Other than that our pitching was outstanding. Billy Greenfield did an outstanding job, and I loved seeing Brant Masters come in and do a great job for us closing it out. This was a huge win for us."

Furman took advantage of two Catamount errors in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. Then the Paladins padded their lead with two runs in the seventh. Jordan Smith was charged with the loss after allowing three runs, two of which were earned, on nine hits over 6 1/3 innings. He walked two, struck out a pair, and was charged with two of the Catamounts' four errors. Overall, the Cats committed four errors.

"We didn't play very well and you have to give a lot of credit to the pitcher from Furman (Matt Solter); he was outstanding. We made four errors and our pitcher made two errors in the first inning. He is one of the best fielders I've ever seen in 28 years of coaching. I've never seen that from him, throwing a pick away. You have to give Furman credit in the seventh for tacking on two more. We've got to play better tomorrow." said head coach Bobby Moranda.

Western Carolina now moves to the loser's bracket and will face fourth-seeded Georgia Southern at 10:00 AM in an elimination game. GSU is the only other team besides Furman that won a series from the Catamounts during the regular season. RHP Jeremy Null is scheduled to start, and GSU will start LHP Sam Howard.

"We are facing an outstanding pitcher tomorrow in (Sam) Howard." added Moranda, "He is outstanding and they have a great team. It is going to be a dog fight. We will come to the park ready to go. We have to play a better brand of Catamount baseball tomorrow."

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