Presbyterian College was colder inside than outside on Saturday.
Elton Pollock’s baseball team polished off some strange snowbirds – Peacocks – with three straight victories to open the season.
What’s more, Saint Peter’s is playing the Blue Hose again on Sunday at noon.
A quarter mile or so away, the men’s basketball team, as is all too often the case, found no good fortune against Big South opponent Longwood. The Blue Hose are good at competing but not at putting games away.
The news was good from Longwood, Va., where Alaura Sharp’s women’s hoops squad continued to burn hot with a decisive victory over the Lancers.
The Blue Hose could hardly have run roughshod over real Peacocks any more roughly than by, in three games over two afternoons, 42-9, the nicknamed ones from Saint Peter’s of Jersey City, N.J.
In fairness, a blustery Friday and Saturday in Clinton may have seemed like a trip to the Bahamas for Saint Peter’s. The barnstorming teams from the North are often relative unpracticed when seasons commence.
Also in fairness, Saint Peter’s was 9-41 last season. And 0-3 so far this won. Presbyterian won the games by scores of 10-2, 16-6 and 16-1.
What do you know? College baseball has arrived, and Peacocks had little opportunity to strut their stuff at Elton Pollock Field in Presbyterian’s 10-2 verdict over Saint Peter’s on Friday.
The South-touring school from Jersey City fell victim to a combined 15 strikeouts from Blue Hose hurlers Daniel Eagen, Caden Banett, Yechiel Saint and Kyle Mueller.
Eagan piled up seven strikeouts and allowed only one hit in five innings on the hill. In a predictable result for teams opening their seasons, Eagen, the PC starters, was 1-0, as was his team, and Kurt Thomas, the losing pitcher, was 0-1, as were the Peacocks.
It was not always PC-dominated. Saint Peters struck first in the fifth, actually, with an RBI double. Three of the Peacocks’ five hits were doubles and both runs scored on the ones by Tyler Cotton and Greg Garrett.
The Blue Hose got untracked on Trey Fenderson’s run-producing triple, and PC took the lead in the fifth inning, as well, on Jackson Hugus’s single. In the sixth Joel Dragoo followed up Brody Fahr’s single with a two-run homer.
After spotting the Peacocks a one-run lead, Presbyterian produced two runs in the fifth, two in the sixth and six in the seventh.
Saturday’s games were eerily similar. In both ends of the doubleheader, PC scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning. In the opener, the Hose scored five runs in the second. In the nightcap, they scored six in the third. PC hit at least two home runs – Dragoo hit blasts in all three games of the series – in both games, Rhogue Wallace and Jack Gorman joining Dragoo in the former, and Ryan Ouzts in the latter.
Dragoo’s opening-weekend homers were the 11th, 12th and 13th of his career. The winning pitchers were the starters – in order, Eagen, Charlie McDaniel and Tristan McGregor – and Eagen and McDaniel went five innings, while McGregor toiled six.
Take a look at the stats of Game 1 here. Take a look at Game 2 here and Game 3 here.
Over at Templeton Center, Longwood (16-11, 4-8 Big South) hung an 81-73 loss on a Blue Hose men’s basketball team with a nagging inability pull itself out of a slump early in the league season.
Presbyterian (12-16, 4-9) lost six of its first seven conference games. The Blue Hose are playing better but can’t get as hot as they were cold at the outset.
It was a lost opportunity, the kind of game a team has to win at home. Then again, only 371 were there to watch.
Walyn Napper belied his surname by lighting up the Blue Hose for 26 points of 6/8 shooting and 14/17 at the foul line. He had three assists and three steals. Also six turnovers. Maybe that was when he was napping. D’Avian Houston scored 15. Michael Christmas had 12.
Marquis Barnett led the Blue Hose with 22 points, adding five assists and three steals. Kobe Stewart scored 12 points. Samage Teel scored 10 off the bench. Trevon Reddish-Rhone scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds.
PC trailed, 33-29, at halftime. The score was tied 10 times.
The Lancers couldn’t shake PC in the first few minutes of the latter half, but Longwood never trailed in the final 14 minutes. The lead swelled to 69-54 with 5:29 to play. From there, Longwood fought a war of attrition the Blue Hose couldn’t win.
Presbyterian faces Winthrop in Rock Hill on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
Take a look at the stats here.
While the men are spinning wheels, the women are activating the rockets.
Up in Farmville, Va. – doesn’t it sound like a quiet community? – Presbyterian (15-13, 6-7) swept past Longwood (6-19, 3-9) with 14 points off the bench and 30 in the paint.
Tilda Sjokvist amassed 20 points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals.
Christina Kline added 13 points and drained all three of her triple attempts.
“A great road win for our team today,” head coach Alaura Sharp called it. “I was really proud of our bench for stepping up and giving us 14 points. Tilda (Sjokvist) was really aggressive today and our team followed her lead.
“Defensively, we have really made some strides over the last few games. We played with a resilient spirit today and that’s what it takes to win on the road.”
The Blue Hose have come alive with three consecutive victories after dropping three straight.
Presbyterian led by a point after a quarter and by four at the half.
A Paige Kindseth triple got the Hose going to start the second half, and a Sjokvist long one put the Blue Hose up, 41-34. It was two better, 51-42, entering the final 10 minutes.
The cushion reached as many as 19 points, 63-44, in a smooth, controlled final stretch.
The Blue Hose return to Templeton against the Winthrop Eagles on Wednesday, at 6:30 p.m.
Take a look at the stats here.
For over two weeks I’ve been suffering from shingles, which has curtailed my live coverage. On Tuesday night, I covered a game for the first time in a while. I went out to two games on Saturday. Even while laid up, though, at least one piece has been posted here for 37 straight days.
I still don’t feel so hot. A coach would probably list me as questionable. It may be a game-time decision.
Shingles has also knocked me off my financial rocker. I’m strapped for cash.
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