NC Wesleyan Ousts Averett

BURLINGTON, NC - Behind a 4-for-6 and three RBI effort from Chris Pecora, North Carolina Wesleyan College defeated Averett 11-3 in game 10 of the USA Conference Baseball Tournament on Saturday. The Bishops advance to play Methodist Colege at 4 p.m., while Averett has been eliminated from the tournament.

The Bishops (26-14) wasted no time in getting on the board as they pushed across two runs in the top of the first. Pecora opened the game by singling up the middle and advanced to second on a sacrifice. Mark Wooten followed by smacking a single to right center to plate Pecora. Justin Batts doubled, putting runners on second and third. Wooten scored the second run on a passed pall.

Matt Smith singled with one out and Batts followed two batters later by hitting a towering two-run home run over the left field fence to give NC Wesleyan a 4-0 lead.

In the fourth, the Bishops scored three more times. With one out, Tyler Goarck reached on an infield single, two batters later with two out, Luke Williford singled and Pecora followed clearing the bases with a double to deep right center chasing AU starter Justin Crowl. Smith laced a single off of reliever Travis Reynolds to score the third run of the inning.

Wes Means walked and Goarck followed two batters later with a single to right. Nathan West grounded out, moving both runners up a base. Williford reached on an error, scoring Means and Pecora followed with a single to left, plating Goarck. Smith reach on an infield bunt hit scoring Williford to give the Bishops a 10-0 lead.

Averett (31-12) managed to put three runs across in the bottom of the fifth inning, to trim the deficit to 10-3. Larry Mothershead led off the inning with a single and advanced to third on a double by Jake Loye and was brought to the plate on a fielding error for the first AU run of the ball game. Eric Sibrizzi added a single to score Loye and T.J. Bray added an RBI single to center field for the final Cougars run of the contest. Wesleyan added a run in the bottom of the eighth inning for the final 11-3 margin.

Joining Pecora with four hits was Smith. He added two RBIs. Batts and Goarck added three hits each for the Bishops. Wesleyan's Ben Moore struck out four in the complete game victory. Sibrizzi and Bray both tallied two hits for Averett.

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