The Shepherd Rams baseball team continued their dominating play, adding yet another sweep last week.
Not even the Pioneers of Glenville State could slow down the Rams. Shepherd has now reached the 20-win mark on the season and has also won 11 consecutive games. To put this streak in perspective, the Rams won a total of 15 games all of last season.
The Rams now hold a sizeable lead atop the Mountain East Conference. Urbana and Concord follow Shepherd in the conference standings.
Shepherd won game one by a score of 8–1 and game two by a score of 8–6. The Rams have now scored at least eight runs in each of their last six games. Pitching has been an area of strength for the Rams this season, and when in conjunction with offensive outbursts such as those that have been occurring for the Rams over the past few weeks, you will win a lot of baseball games.
Paul Hvozdovic notched his fourth complete game of the season in game one, only allowing a pair of hits, one earned run and nine strikeouts. The Herndon, Va. native did not allow a free pass to any batter during his time spent on the rubber. Hvozdovic is now 6–0 on the season with a 1.91 ERA. The victory was also his 28th win in his career at Shepherd, extending his own record.
There were multiple hitters who came up big for the Rams in the series. Senior Ryan Messina smacked a Grand Slam – which also happened to be his second home run of the season – that opened up the game for the Rams in game two. In game one, Brandon Coffey had a single in the first inning that would bring in two runs. The Rams scored five runs in the inning and did not look back. Wilson, as well as Spencer Wolfe, recorded a multi-hit game.
Jamie Driver would get the win in game two, pitching five and one-third of an inning, allowing seven hits, four runs and four strikeouts. Driver now has a 5–1 record thus far on the year. Tyler Thomas also managed to pitch his way to his first save of the season.
Ahead on the schedule for the Rams, they will face off with the Notre Dame Falcons this weekend, fourth in the Mountain East Conference, before a rematch with West Virginia Wesleyan. The Rams will then play fifth-place West Liberty and travel to Concord to match up against the third-place Mountain Lions. Shepherd will travel to Fairmont State to end the regular season.
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