Adams and Bowling Stifle Mountaineers

BEREA, Ky. – It was another stellar pitching performance by seniors Greg Bowling and Gardner Adams as they led the Eagles to a doubleheader sweep of Berea 5-0 and 5-2 in KIAC action on Saturday.  The duo combined to pitch 13.1 of 14 innings allowing only nine hits, two runs and striking out 18.

It was Bowling (4-2) in game one throwing his first complete game of the season and second career shutout against the KIAC’s top hitting team, limiting the Mountaineers to just four hits over seven innings.  The senior from Ashland struck out five and walked two.  He leads the team and KIAC in era at 2.87.

Bowling got help behind him as the defense turned three double-plays including one in the seventh inning.  Bowling was in trouble only twice, in the first and second innings.  In the first a leadoff walk to Jerrod Moore turned into a runner on third with two outs but Bowling battled to strike out Austin Hunt to end the threat.  In the second Berea had runners on second and third with two outs after a double from Kyle Tibbs but again Bowling got out of the jam with a strikeout to end the inning.

Asbury (23-11-2, 12-5 KIAC) didn’t pick up a hit until the fifth inning when Josh Cummins knocked in Josh Thigpen who had reached on an error.  Casey Messner singled to put runners on the corners and Evan Thomsen hit a sacrifice fly to give the Eagles a 2-0 advantage.  Thigpen would knock in two in the sixth before Messner singled him in later in the inning.  Asbury collected four hits in the sixth and all six of their hits in the fifth and sixth innings. 

In game two Adams (8-2) continued to overpower the opposition, striking out a career-high 13 in 6.1 innings of work.  He struck out at least one batter in every inning and twice struck out the side. 

In the second inning Adams gave up a leadoff homerun but bounced back to strike out the next three batters.  Berea added their second run in the fifth after Jerrod Moore reached on an error, Aaron Bee tripled him home.

Asbury jumped on Berea early in the second game, scoring two runs in each of the first two innings.  Matt Ciolek had RBI singles in each of the first two innings as the Eagles took advantage of three errors by Berea.  Mark Deetsch knocked home the fifth Asbury run in the fifth.

The Eagles will host Alice Lloyd on Tuesday in a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 pm.  Asbury has taken all three games so far this season against Alice Lloyd.