BURLINGTON, N.C. — The Catawba Valley Community College baseball team capitalized on a two-hit performance on the mound from freshman Andrew Dye and 12 hits at the plate on Friday, defeating Camp 11-1 in six innings in its first-round game at the South Atlantic District tournament at the Burlington Athletic Stadium.
The Red Hawks (41-11), who are the top seed from the West Division, advance in the winner's bracket and face the East Division's No. 2 team Pitt (20-16) on Saturday at 7 p.m.
CVCC opened up the scoring in Friday's tournament opener in the second inning, plating two runs — one on an RBI double by shortstop Kye Andress and another on a fielder's choice RBI by Region 10 Player of the Year Chandler Blackwelder.
Right fielder Brett Eurey's RBI single in the third inning extended the Red Hawk lead to 3-0.
Dye retired the side in order in the first and third innings, and he held the Hurricanes scoreless through four innings of Friday's game before Thomas Fox's RBI double put Camp on the board and cut its deficit to 3-1 through 4.5 innings.
Catawba Valley immediately answered back in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring two runs on an RBI single from third Jordan Montgomery to make it a 5-1 CVCC lead.
With his team's lead at four run, Dye settled back in, striking out two of the three batters he faced in the top of the sixth inning.
The Red Hawks closed out the run-rule win with a six-run sixth inning that included five hits, including a two-RBI double by Blackwelder, a two-RBI single from designated hitter Reece Landmark, an RBI single from Montgomery and a walk-off RBI by Andress.
TOURNAMENT NOTES
Dye improves to 8-1 with Friday's win — tying the school record for victories in a season held by Red Hawk pitchers Blake Mosteller (2012), Cole Whitney (2017) and Julian Smith (2018).
James Hinson's first-inning double was his 26th on the season, which broke the single-season record by a Red Hawk player set by Craig Zalewa in 2016.
Saturday's tournament meeting between CVCC and Pitt will be only the second time the two teams have met in the tournament. The Red Hawks won the only postseason meeting against the Bulldogs 10-1 on May 14, 2018.
