JONESBORO, Ark. -
Bryan Cryer became the second pitcher in University
of New Orleans school history to throw 300 strikeouts as the Privateers
defeated Arkansas State 7-5 on Saturday night.
Cryer improved to 9-1 on the season as UNO (28-13, 11-8 SBC) won
their sixth straight Saturday contest and clinched their fifth straight
Sun Belt Conference series win. The right-handed pitcher threw seven
innings of five-hit ball while allowing five runs, two earned.
ASU
right fielder Jett Jones was the 300th strikeout victim for Cryer, who
now has struck out 302 batters, eight shy of the school-record holding
Wally Whitehurst, who struck out 310 during a three-year career ending
in 1985.
ASU dropped to 16-28 overall and 5-15 in SBC play with
Jacob Maggard (3-5) charged with the loss after allowing five runs on
nine hits over 3 2/3 innings before handing the ball over to the
bullpen.
At the plate, head coach
Tom Walter got strong production from the fifth and sixth hitters in the lineup as
Joey Butler
and
Josh Vander Hey had four and three hits, respectively. Butler scored
three runs while Vander Hey added two runs to go along with three RBIs.
Ryan Eden added two hits for the Privateers.
After the Privateers went down in order to begin the game,
Johnny Giavotella
led off the top of the second with a single to kick start a string of
four singles in five at-bats. Giavotella scored on a VanderHey single
while Butler followed on a
Mark McGonigle single as UNO took a 2-0 lead.
Mistakes
in the field cost the Privateers in the bottom of the third as UNO
committed two errors assisting the Indians in putting the first three
batters on base. A Guy Brown double to right field put the go-ahead run
across the plate as ASU erased a two-run deficit to take a 3-2 lead.
The
Privateers took the lead back scoring three runs on four hits while
leaving three on base in the top of the fourth. Butler led the inning
off with a double before scoring on a Vander Hey single down the left
field line to tie the game.
Jeff Lanning followed with the third
straight UNO hit to start the inning hitting a single to center field
scoring Vander Hey. A T.J Baxter walk with the bases loaded later in the
inning pushed Lanning across the plate for a 5-3 lead.
UNO
tacked another run on the board in the top of the fifth to extend the
lead to 6-3 before ASU's Derrick Coleman hit his sixth home run of the
year over the right field wall. The Indians scored another run in the
bottom of the fith to cut the lead to one when a Eller double scored
Ryan Hudgins, who reached base after being hit by pitch. An acrobatic
catch by third baseman T.J Baxter ended the ASU threat.
The
scoring for both teams came to an end in the seventh when the
Privateers got a home run from Vander Hey, his ninth of the season.
Jake Henderson pitched a scoreless eighth for UNO before
Ryan O'Shea
picked up his tenth save of the season and second of the day after
holding the Indians at bay in the ninth inning despite allowing the
first two batters to reach base.
The two teams will look to
complete the series at 1:00 p.m on Sunday afternoon. Live stats will be
available on UNOPrivateers.com with audio coverage of the game
available on WGSO 990 AM.
