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Box Score

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Eastern Kentucky jumped out to a 4-0 lead in its season opener at Charleston Southern, but the Buccaneers scored 17 unanswered to take a 17-4 win.

The first three innings of the 2013 season couldn’t have gotten off to a better start for the Colonels.  Austin Grisham took the first pitch of the game and drove it into right field for a single.  Two batters later he scored on a Bryan Soloman single. 

EKU added three more in the third.  With the bases loaded and one out, freshman Kyle Nowlin singled through the left side for his first collegiate hit and a 2-0 Eastern lead.  A wild pitch platted another run before Sean Hagen’s sacrifice fly made it 4-0 in favor of the visitors.

Starter Anthony Bazzani didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, including striking out the side in the second.

CSU took advantage of two EKU errors to cut its deficit in half in the bottom of the fourth.  John Faircloth singled in a run and then later scored on a fielding error.  The Buccaneers added another run in the fifth before exploding for 11 runs combined in the sixth and seventh innings.

Bobby Ison had a two-run single in a 5-run sixth.  Drew Woodall and Jaren Sustar had a pair of two-run singles in a 6-run seventh inning.  Charleston Southern pushed across three more in the eighth.

The Colonels finished with five errors.  Only 10 of CSU’s 17 runs were earned.  Bazzani (0-1) allowed seven runs, six of which were earned, on seven hits over five innings.  He struck out six.  Cameron Langfels surrendered nine runs in one and two-thirds innings, but only three were earned.

Soloman had two hits in four at bats, a run scored and one driven in.  Matt Phipps went 2-for-3.

Tory Schroff (1-0) earned the win after pitching three innings of hitless relief.  Ison finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored.  Woodall went 2-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs.

EKU and CSU will continue their season-opening series on Saturday at 1 p.m.  The game was originally scheduled for 2 p.m. but has been changed.