Cobras Earn Doubleheader, Series Sweep over Erskine
The Cobras picked up wins six and seven on Saturday.
HARTSVILLE, SC- Coker baseball took both games of its doubleheader on Saturday (Feb. 18) to pick up the series sweep against Erskine. The Cobras took the first game 4-3 in a thrilling thirteen-inning game and the second game 9-6.
The Cobras struck first on a two-run blast to left field by A.J. Strnad in the fifth inning. Brooks Estrada followed it up in the sixth with an RBI single to score Darius Coldiron.
Erskine responded in the eighth inning by plating two runs and added another in the ninth to send the game into extra innings.
It took until the thirteenth for the Cobras to get anything going, as Bryson Conner led off with a walk and stole second to put a runner in scoring position with one out. After an intentional walk to Darius Coldiron, Brooks Estrada blooped a single into shallow right field to load the bases with just one out. Clint Allen came up big, driving in Conner with a walk-off sacrifice fly to end the game one.
Forrest Arnold went seven solid innings to start the game while giving up just two earned runs on six hits. Cody Allen tossed five and a third in relief, giving up a single run to go along with six strikeouts. Griffin Hollifield (1-0) picked up his first win of the season. Hollifield went two-thirds of an inning without giving up a hit and tallied one strikeout.
After going down by two runs early, Coker responding by plating six runs in the bottom half of the third to take the lead. With two on and no outs, Bryson Conner ripped a double down the right field line to score Tanner Crosby. Thomas Lopez singled to plate another run, while Darius Coldiron drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to left field. With two on base, Robert Lybrand stepped up and lined one to the fence for a two RBI triple and then scored following a wild pitch. Lybrand would drive in another run with an RBI single in the fifth. Erskine pulled back two in the sixth and the Cobras responded with a run of their own in the bottom half to make it 9-4. With darkness looming Erskine tried to make a comeback and scored two runs in the seventh before starter Will Sutton shut them down to pick up the 9-6 win.
Sutton (2-0) went the complete game to pick up the win while giving up six runs on ten hits and striking out four.
The Cobras will be back in action on Feb. 24-25 for an away South Atlantic Conference series against the Tusculum College Pioneers.