INMAN, S.C. – Chapman opened a home-and-home series on Wednesday evening against a familiar opponent in the Clinton Red Devils. A solid start and key hits propelled the Panthers to an 11-0 victory over Clinton in five innings.
Jacob Cogdell took the mound for Chapman and settled in quickly with a strikeout and two lineouts to work around a one out base runner. The right-hander, a Newberry College commit, scattered two hits over four innings of work while striking five Red Devil batters and inducing three groundouts, as well as a trio of lineouts. Chapman sent 10 up to bat in the opening frame, as leadoff man Hudson Moss was hit by a pitch and later scored on a Kole Brown double to right-center field. Cason Owens ripped a single down the left field line & scored on an error that also allowed Coleman Gray to reach. With the bases loaded, Jack Settle drew a free pass the hard way, allowing Johann Rodriguez to score. Peyton Hodge smacked a two-RBI double to left, which made for a 5-0 Panther lead. “Every team we try to play is to make us better,” said Chapman head coach Steven Fusaro. “We have a ton of respect for Clinton. Coach McCarthy does an amazing job down there, and those kids are well coached and play extremely hard. We want to play great teams and we feel like Clinton is a great team.” With two aboard in the third inning, senior shortstop Jarren Metcalf sent a 1-1 offering the opposite way to right field, which allowed both Owens and Gray to cross home plate. On the play, the relay throw to third was offline, allowing Metcalf to score and make it an 11-0 advantage. “I just take a line drive approach,” Metcalf stated. “I put the ball backside and sprinted hard out of the box. As I rounded second, Coach Fu told me to keep going. I saw the ball go down (the line), then rounded third and scored. We’re one heck of a team and we’re getting better every day.” Brown notched two hits, a pair of doubles, a run scored, and two runs batted in, while Owens also tallied a pair of hits and accounted for three runs. Gray and Moss also scored two runs apiece, while Rodriguez and Devin Roe each tallied a run batted in. “I was excited about our energy and the way we approached the game,” Fusaro remarked. “The sky's the limit for this team, but the big thing is just continuing to get better every single day. It’s really easy when things are going good to be complacent, and that’s when people catch up to you. We’re working really hard to stay focused on getting better in every facet of the game and our overall approach to things.” Next up for Chapman (11-3) is a non-region road contest against Clinton on Thursday. The game is slated for a 7:30 PM start. Comments are closed.
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