Weatherford powers Wingate past No. 7 Francis Marion 9-7
FLORENCE, SC – Freshman first baseman Heath Weatherford homered twice and drove in four run to help power Wingate University to a 9-7 non-conference win over seventh-ranked Francis Marion University, Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 27) in college baseball action.
Wingate (8-11) rapped out 10 hits and also took advantage of 10 walks issued by FMU pitchers and two hit batters. Francis Marion (14-3) managed 11 hits of its own, but could not overcome a 9-5 deficit after four innings.
Weatherford was 3-for-5 to lead the Bulldogs, while Scott Kelly was 2-for-6 with two runs scored.
FMU senior shortstop Greg Phelps went 2-for-5 with an RBI to extend his hitting streak to 25 games, while third baseman Keon Graves was 2-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored and freshman first baseman Preston Shuey was 2-for-5 with two runs batted in.
Both team scored twice in the opening frame. Wingate took the lead for good with a four-run second frame that was highlighted by a solo homer from Nick Siega-Riz and a three-run blast from Weatherford. After FMU trimmed the margin to 6-5 on run-scoring hits by Graves and Shawn Summers in the bottom of the third, Wingate answered with three runs in its next at bat to go up 9-5.
Francis Marion scored single runs in the fifth and seventh innings, and put the potential tying runs on base in the eighth, but Wingate right-hander Lee Oxendine wiggled out of trouble to earn his first save. Lefty Kevin Childs (1-0) was the second Wingate pitcher and the beneficiary of the early onslaught.
FMU freshman Ricky Kalgstein (0-1) was the losing pitcher.
Francis Marion will entertain eighth-ranked Armstrong Atlantic State University for a three-game series, beginning with a single game on Friday at 3 p.m. Wingate will open a three-game South Atlantic Conference series at Lenoir-Rhyne College on Friday at 7 p.m.
