Ryan Schade extended his hitting streak to 18 games and Dan Foley pitched a complete-game shutout as Western Carolina defeated Davidson, 7-0, Sunday afternoon at Hennon Stadium.
With the weekend sweep, the Catamounts improve to 28-23 overall and 16-10 in the SoCon, while the Wildcats fall to 18-31, 10-20.
In the top half of the first, Foley recorded two quick outs before allowing a Tim Frend single. Frend would move to second base one batter later on a walk. That walk was Foley’s only free pass of the afternoon and was only his 15th of the season (68.1 innings). The San Jose, Calif., junior escaped the first unscathed by getting Billy Ryan to fly out to end the first. Frend would be the lone Wildcat to touch second base in the contest.
Foley (6-2) takes over the team lead in wins, allowing four hits and one walk, while fanning three, in his first complete-game. It marked Western’s second complete-game of the season and was the team’s first shutout since blanking North Carolina A&T, 20-0, on Feb. 28, 1999. Foley retired 11 straight at one point, spanning from the end of the first until surrendering a hit to Jeremiah Parvin in the fifth.
Schade, a junior third baseman from Lewisburg, Pa., gave WCU all the offense it needed, hitting a one-out, solo home run in the bottom of the first.
The blast was Schade’s fifth of the season and gives him the team’s longest hitting streak of the season. The Catamounts added another run in the frame when Donovan Minero plated Alan Beck with an RBI single.
The Catamounts scored single runs in the third and fourth innings to take a 4-0 lead. Matt Price drove home Minero with a two-out, RBI single in the third, while Doug Myers, who started the fourth by being hit by a pitch, scored after a single by Dan Woodley and an RBI groundout by Michael Roane.
Western Carolina used four consecutive hits by Schade, Beck, Todd Buchanan and Minero, as well as a Rod Goldston sacrifice fly, in the seventh to score three runs and provide the final margin, 7-0.
Minero paced the Catamount offense with a 3-for-4 performance and a game-high two RBI. Schade (2-for-5) and Beck (2-for-3) each added a pair of hits and two runs scored. For Davidson, Frend had two of his team’s four hits, while Parvin and Stephen Aldrich collected the other two.
Wildcat starter Andy Demko (2-4) suffered the loss. The sophomore gave up seven hits, five runs and four walks, while striking out three in 6-plus innings.
Western Carolina, which starts final exams this week, will not return to action until a weekend series at Virginia Military Institute. The SoCon series will be both teams’ season finale with a doubleheader being played on Saturday (May12 at Noon) and a single game on Sunday (May 13 at 1:00 p.m.)