SPORTS
Davidson Baseball Completes Sweep of University of North Alabama
Wildcats celebrate after a homer against University of North Alabama.
Three days of sun, three days of baseball, three wins.
The Davidson Wildcats completed a series win over North Alabama Sunday afternoon with a 13-1 win at Wilson Field. It’s the second series sweep of the season for the 9-6 Wildcats, who swept Towson to open the season. That series included a doubleheader, though, as did the home series with Toledo, and the Wildcats have had two home series wiped out completely by rain.
Justin Lebek slides in scoring yet another run during Sunday’s game.
Against North Alabama, the sun was out and the Wildcats say they found their groove, too.
“It was great to have a traditional three-game weekend,” said coach Rucker Taylor. “First one of the season for us. I thought our pitching was sharp this weekend, and we were able to get in a little bit of a rhythm offensively.”
In the series finale, the Wildcats jumped ahead 5-0 in the first inning — highlighted by Brett Centracchio’s three-run home run — and never looked back, scoring runs in every inning until it was 13-0 after five.
Centracchio, who homered for the third time in four games, finished 2-for-3 with four RBI and drew a walk. Five other Wildcats had multiple hits, including Alex Fedje-Johnson, who was 3-for-5 and one of five Davidson players to hit a double. Fedje-Johnson, Justin Lebek and Trevor Candelaria drove in two runs apiece.
Casey Sutherland was on the mound on Saturday.
Candelaria, a freshman centerfielder, also was handy with his glove. In the top of the fourth, he recorded all three outs on fly balls and robbed Davis Elliott of a likely double for the second one. Elliott’s line drive to right center took Candelaria far to his left, but he fully extended to catch it.
“That was unbelievable,” said Max Bazin, who took in the play from his post at shortstop. “You don’t see anything like that. That’s a legit, MLB web gem. He’s a tremendous athlete out there. It’s a nice safety net for our pitchers. They may see a ball fly off the bat, but they have Trevor out there.”
Right-hander Josh Hudson followed the recent quality outings of fellow starters Allen Barry and Casey Sutherland with his own. He tossed six innings, allowing only two hits and striking out five. He faced 20 batters while improving to 2-1.
“Huddy was tremendous today,” said Bazin.