Baseball starts season on sterling note

Braves ranked No. 7 after sweeping No. 4 North Florida Ospreys

By Dan Kelly
Staff Writer

Earlier this season, when head coach Paul O’Neil said he expected the UNCP baseball team to make strides from last year, he wasn’t kidding.

His expectations for 2005 have proved correct so far with the team going undefeated at 11-0 through the first week of the season.

Chalk up three of those wins over No. 4 ranked North Florida, the 2004 Peach Belt Conference champion.

The three victories, coming Feb. 12 and 13 at Braves Field read 5-4 in 13 innings, 4-3 and 9-4.

The Braves are now ranked seventh after their sweep of North Florida.

Sophomore Chris Beck and junior Tripp Lockhart had game-winning RBIs in the first two games.

The season opener against Coker was a tense game that went into late innings. But back-to-back home runs by Robbie Redic and Tripp Lockhart in the bottom of the eighth inning, broke a 7-7 tie, and a dominant closing performance by Sandy Jacobs the following inning, got the season off to an exciting start.

The Braves next contest, their first road test against St. Andrews, was a tight 3-1 win. UNCP held off the Knights with six shutout innings from Tyson Van Dam, followed by Jacobs’ first save.

The team then returned home for a double-header that Saturday for the beginning of a three game series against Anderson.

The Braves continued the theme of great offense and stout pitching to win the double-header 7-3, 6-1 before coming back from a two-run deficit on Sunday to win 4-2.

The next road game against Catawba proved to be nerve-racking as well with the Braves coming back for a 5-4 victory.