BCC Dolphins come up short

SHALLOTTE—There are two ways to look at Brunswick Community College’s baseball doubleheader last Thursday against the visiting Louisburg Hurricanes.

A glass-half-full person might marvel at the fact a first-year club went toe-to-toe with a program that has won 25 conference titles and made 10 trips in the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series.

A glass-half-empty person might look at the two narrow defeats and think what might have been. BCC had chances to win both games but came up short, 3-1 and 5-3.

BCC coach Robbie Allen fell somewhere in the middle, although he was perturbed the Dolphins made several errors and coughed up a late lead in the second game.

“Here’s my thing right now with this bunch. Is it a moral victory? Yes. We hung with a pretty good bunch right there,” Allen said.

“But the thing of it is you can’t really be satisfied with what we just did because we gave it to them. If they would have come back and strung seven or eight hits in a row, then it’s a moral victory. But we gave it to them.”

In the nightcap, BCC (8-13) held a 2-1 lead through five innings but committed crucial errors in the sixth and seventh that led to four unearned runs for the Hurricanes.

“We absolutely gassed up,” Allen said. “It happens and that’s one of the things that I’m talking about with this young bunch. We had more hits than them and made two big errors that really hurt us.”

By sweeping the doubleheader, Louisburg extended its winning streak to 16 games and improved to 20-1 overall.

The Hurricanes were ranked 30th in the NJCAA Division I pre-season poll. The first regular-season poll isn’t out until March 19.

In the first game, Louisburg scored one run in each of the first two innings on RBI singles by Brad Fletcher and Quinn Finnegan.

BCC cut the deficit to 2-1 in the second when Jeremy King pounded a double over the right fielder’s head and came home on a base hit by Derek Cozzolino.

The Hurricanes made it 3-1 in the third when Zach Howard walked and later scored from second on an error.

Kyle Harmon suffered the pitching loss despite holding the Hurricanes to two earned runs in six innings. Frankie Everette was 2-for-3 to lead the Dolphins at the plate.

Fletcher went 3-for-4 and Cam Parsons and Finnegan had two hits apiece for Louisburg. Zach Jeney, the first of four pitchers used by the Hurricanes, went three innings for the win.

In the second game, Louisburg took a 1-0 lead in the top of first on D.J. Robinson’s RBI single.

BCC answered in the home half with two runs on four hits and an error. Chris Eason singled, T.J. Overman doubled and both runners scored on King’s single to right-center field. The Dolphins had a chance to score more runs but left the bases loaded.

BCC starting pitcher Chris Williamson kept the Hurricanes off the board for the next four innings.

John Child came on in relief in the sixth and gave up three unearned runs on three hits and one error.

With two outs, Finnegan hit a two-run single and Adam Wisniewski followed with an RBI double to give Louisburg a 4-2 lead.

The Hurricanes added another unearned run in the seventh when Brett DePalma doubled and scored from second on a throwing error.

In the BCC seventh, Jordan Davis came through with a pinch-hit single and Charlie Gore beat out an infield single.

With two outs, Overman singled to left field to make it 5-3. But moments later, he was picked off at first base for the final out.

Allen said BCC got good pitching in both games, but didn’t play solid enough defense or string together enough hits to back up the pitchers.

“I thought Chris Williamson did an outstanding job. I thought the pitcher in the first game, Kyle Harmon, did a good job,” he said.

“Everything that happened today, even the physical errors that we had today, were created because of a mental lapse.”

BCC will return to action March 16 with a doubleheader at Pitt Community College. The Dolphins host a doubleheader against Hudson Valley (N.Y.) Community College on March 17.

Allen said he was considering making several position changes while the Dolphins had more than a week between games.

“We made one position change today and it’s worked out pretty good. We moved T.J. Overman to third base and we moved Jeremy King to first base,” he said.

“One of the things we’re really going to work on is mental preparation before the pitch. We’ve got to spend a lot of time on that discipline.

“You just have to have enough time on the field to put them in every imaginable situation. We have those little lapses where we are not mentally tough enough yet to be prepared to play the doubleheaders that we’re playing.”

GAME 1 BOX SCORE

LOUISBURG

ab r h bi

Jones 2b 4 0 0 0

Howard 3b 3 2 1 0

Fletcher dh 4 0 3 1

DePalma lf 4 0 1 0

Robinson rf 4 0 1 0

Merrill 1b 3 0 0 0

Parsons c 2 1 2 0

Everette cf 3 0 1 0

Finnegan ss 3 0 2 1

Jeney p 0 0 0 0

Totals 30 3 11 2

BRUNSWICK

ab r h bi

Gore cf 4 0 1 0

Eason 2b 4 0 0 0

Overman 3b 2 0 0 0

Smeltzer c 3 0 0 0

King dh 2 1 1 0

Everette 1b 3 0 2 0

Cozzolino lf 3 0 1 1

Hawkins rf 3 0 1 0

Kendall ss 3 0 0 0

Harmon p 0 0 0 0

Totals 27 1 6 1

LINESCORE

Louis. 111 000 0—3 11 1

BCC 010 000 0—1 6 1

LOB—Louisburg 8, Brunswick 6. 2B—Howard (L), King (B).

IP H R ER BB SO

Louisburg

Jeney 3 4 1 1 1 3

Dezearn 2 0 0 0 0 3

Powell 1 1 0 0 1 1

Little 1 1 0 0 0 2

Brunswick

Harmon 6 9 3 2 2 2

Davis 1 1 0 0 0 0

GAME 2 BOX SCORE

LOUISBURG

ab r h bi

Jones 2b 1 0 0 0

Everette cf 2 0 0 0

Hagerty cf 2 0 0 0

Fletcher dh 0 1 0 0

Underwood dh 1 0 0 0

Nickel 3b 1 0 0 0

DePalma lf 2 1 1 0

Robinson 1b 4 1 1 1

Parsons c 3 1 0 0

Egetmeyer rf 4 1 1 0

Finnegan ss 3 0 1 2

Wisniewski 3b 3 0 1 1

Oaks p 0 0 0 0

Totals 26 5 5 4

BRUNSWICK

ab r h bi

Gore cf 4 0 2 0

Eason 2b 4 1 1 0

Overman 3b 4 1 2 1

King 1b 3 0 1 2

Everette dh 2 0 0 0

Douglas c 2 0 1 0

Hawkins rf 2 0 0 0

Kendall ss 2 0 0 0

Ouellette ph 1 0 0 0

Nixon lf 2 0 0 0

Davis ph 1 1 1 0

Williamson p 0 0 0 0

Totals 27 3 8 3

LINESCORE

Louis. 100 003 1—5 5 2

BCC 200 000 1—3 8 2

LOB—Louisburg 8, Brunswick 6. 2B—DePalma (L), Wisniewski (L), Overman (B).

IP H R ER BB SO

Louisburg

Oaks 4 5 2 2 1 3

Wisniewski 3 3 1 1 1 2

Brunswick

Williamson 5 1 1 1 5 6

Child 1 3 3 0 2 1

Cozzolino 1 1 1 0 0 0