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Recap | Box Score

May 10, 2012

Malone Closes Door on 5-3 Pirate Win

Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Armstrong Atlantic State (38-13) 0 0 0 1 0 3 1 0 0 5 8 0
Montevallo (25-27) 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 3 8 2
@ Columbus, Ga. | Golden Park
Pitching
Win: Scott Strickland (9-3) - Armstrong Atlantic State
Loss: Alex Guilford (3-6) - Montevallo
Save: Chess Malone (4) - Armstrong Atlantic State
Armstrong Atlantic State Batting
2B: John Roberts
3B: none
HR: Chris Zittrouer
Montevallo Batting
2B: none
3B: Zack Willoughby
HR: Heath Peterson
full stats

COLUMBUS, GA – Freshman reliever Chess Malone pitched 2.1 scoreless innings and allowed 11th-ranked Armstrong Atlantic State University to escape with a 5-3 win over the University of Montevallo, Thursday afternoon (May 10) on the second day of the 2012 Peach Belt Conference Baseball Tournament.

Armstrong (38-13) advances to a winners’ bracket game on Friday at 7:30 p.m.  Montevallo (25-27) falls into the losers’ bracket where the Falcons will face USC Aiken on Friday at 9 a.m.  USCA eliminated North Georgia College & State University 11-2 earlier on Thursday.

Malone earned his fourth save of 2012, while Armstrong starter Scott Strickland improves to 9-3.  Strickland fanned eight and walked six in 6.2 innings.

Montevallo starter Alex Guilford (3-6) was tagged with the hard-luck loss as he allowed five runs, but only one was earned.

Catcher John Roberts and second baseman Will Thomas paced the Pirates with a pair of hits each, while second baseman Will Fulmer and third baseman Andrew Hill both had two hits for the Falcons.

Armstrong manufactured its first run in the top of the fourth for a 1-0 lead.  Roberts reached on a throwing error and advanced to second on the play. He moved to third on a groundout and came home on a successful safety squeeze bunt by Jones.

In the fifth, the Pirates pushed the lead to 4-0 on back-to-back nearly identical RBI infield singles by Jones and Thomas.  Lead-off man Casey Maloney plated the third run of the frame with a single to right center field.

Montevallo dented the scoreboard, almost literally, as first baseman Heath Peterson blasted a 395-foot solo home run to lead off the bottom of the sixth to trim the margin to 4-1. It was his 14th round-tripper of the year. Later in the frame, left fielder Zack Willoughby drilled an RBI-triple off the right field fence to make it a two-run contest at 4-2.

Both teams scratched singles tallies in the seventh – Armstrong on a 390-foot solo blast to left-center field by Chris Zittrouer and Montevallo on an RBI-single to right from designated hitter Chris Ross.  The Pirates escaped further trouble in the bottom of the seventh when Malone entered the game and induced Blaine Rosenberg to line-out to second with two outs and the bases loaded.

Malone issued a lead-off walk in the eighth, but then coaxed a double play grounder back to the mound to wipe out the baserunner.  He tossed a perfect 1-2-3 ninth inning to close out the Pirate win.