FLORENCE, S.C. – Francis Marion University took advantage of four errors and four wild pitches by Brown University to claim a 7-3 win, Thursday afternoon (March 29) in non-conference baseball action at Cormell Field.
Francis Marion, ranked 29th in the latest Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division II Top 25 poll, ups its record to 23-13, while the Division I Bears fall to 5-11. It marks the first win for the Patriots over a Division I opponent in 18 seasons dating back to a 6-1 victory over Coastal Carolina on April 4, 1989. However, FMU has not faced a Division I opponent since the 1991 campaign.
Reserve infielder David Bounds came off the Francis Marion bench and drove in two runs with a pinch-hit sacrifice bunt in the fifth inning and a sacrifice fly in the seventh. Patriot leadoff batter Derek Kennamer singled in the first and walked in the third and both times came around to score on wild pitches by Brown right-hander Will Ellis (0-1).
Freshman designated hitter Ryan Hewitt paced the Patriot attack with a 3-for-4 afternoon, while left fielder Justin Greene was 2-for-3 with an RBI and second baseman Ryan Hypke was 2-for-4. Junior righty Cole McKellar (4-3) relieved starter Cory Deering in the fifth frame and picked up the win.
Third baseman Robert Papenhause was the lone Bear with more than one hit as he went 2-for-3 with a run scored.
Brown tied the game at 2-2 on a sacrifice fly by Devin Thomas in the top of the fifth frame. FMU answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning on a 350-foot RBI single by Jared Barkdoll off the right field fence and Bounds’ safety squeeze bunt. Bounds’ sacrifice fly in the seventh upped the margin to 5-2, and Francis Marion plated two runs in the eighth inning on run-scoring singles by Greg Phelps and Greene.
Brown scored once in the ninth inning as Papenhause doubled, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on an RBI groundout by Dan Shapiro.
FMU plays host to UNC Pembroke for a three-game Peach Belt Conference series this weekend, starting with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. Browns opens Ivy League play with a twinbill at Princeton University on Saturday at noon.
