HAMMOND, La. – Taylor Schwaner smashed a game-winning, two-run home run to left-center field and Southeastern Louisiana walked-off with a 4-2 victory over West Virginia in 12 innings Wednesday at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
For the second time in the past week, Southeastern (8-4) earned a win in its final turn at bat. The Lions had previously walked-off with a 4-3 win Friday over South Alabama in Southeastern's opening game of the Cox Diamond Invitational.
West Virginia (7-5) struck early on a two-out, solo home run by designated hitter Marques Inman in the top of the second.
Southeastern reached Mountaineer starting pitcher Isaiah Kearns for a pair of runs in the third, taking the lead.
With two outs, left fielder
Drew Avans drew a walk from Kearns. The junior from Alabaster, Alabama, scored on a triple to right field off the bat of third baseman
Taylor Schwaner. He scored on
Carson Crites' RBI single up the middle.
West Virginia tied the game in the fifth off reliever
Gage Pickett, the third of nine pitchers used in the game by the Lions.
Third baseman Austin Cole drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw by Southeastern catcher
Daniel Wasinger. Cole scored on a two-out double to right-center off the bat of catcher Ivan Gonzalez.
From that point forward, each bullpen threw 7.1-consecutive scoreless innings.
In the 12th, Avans (1-0), now the Lions' pitcher, knocked a one-out single to right off reliever Jacob Potock (0-1). With Schwaner at the plate, Avans stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by Gonzalez to set up the evening's heroics.
Avans earned the win, working a pair of scoreless innings in relief. Potock was tagged with the loss, allowing two runs and retiring just one of the three batters he faced.
Schwaner, a junior from New Orleans, Louisiana, and senior
Derrick Mount led the Lions at the plate, recording two hits each. Schwaner drove in three.
Southeastern opens Southland Conference play this weekend, as they take on in-state league foe New Orleans (9-4) in a split three-game series. Friday's 6:30 p.m. contest and Sunday's 1 p.m. series finale will be held in New Orleans, while the Privateers visit the Pat Saturday at 2 p.m. The series opener will be televised live on Cox Sports Television.
Southeastern 4, West Virginia 2 (Mar 08, 2017 at Hammond, La.)
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West Virginia........ 010 010 000 000 - 2 7 2 (7-5)
Southeastern........ 002 000 000 002 - 4 8 1 (8-4)
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Pitchers: West Virginia - Kearns, Isaiah; Sigman, Jackson (5); Zarbnisky, Braden (9); Potock, Jacob (12) and Gonzalez, Ivan. Southeastern - Koestler, Carlisle; Robinson, Payton (3); Pickett, Gage (5); Hurst, Cliff (5); Booth, Tyler (6); Tassin, Bryce (7); Hileman, Evan (8); Green, Josh (9); Avans, Drew (11) and Wasinger, Daniel.
Win-Avans, Drew (1-0) Loss-Potock, Jacob (0-1) T-3:49 A-1492
HR WVU - Inman, Marques.
HR SLU - Schwaner, Taylor.
Weather: Partly Cloudy 68, SSE 1 MPH
