Justin Manning hit a solo home run and Gunnar Kines was pin point as he threw a complete game and the No. 24 University of Mount Olive defeated Wingate University 5-1 in the opening round of the 2015 NCAA DII Southeast Regional in Thomasville, N.C. Trojans scored four runs in the fifth inning off two hits to secure the win.
Mount Olive (38-14) picked up the game's first hit in the second. Manning led off the inning with a solo home run to right and the Trojans took the early lead.
Manning talked about his approach after the game.
"I was trying to get a head in the count and i was sitting dead red fastball and i got a fastball over the middle of the plate. It is so important in games like this to score first and i was just looking to get on base and i was able to get one over".
Wingate (32-25) responded in the third. Bill Krebs reached on an error by the second baseman to lead off the inning. Shane Billings dropped down a drag bunt down the third base line and beat out the throw for an infield single. Michael Godinez singled through the right side for the first hit for the Bulldogs and scored the tying run as Krebs scored.
Kines was able to get out of the inning as he got Thomas Spitz to ground into a double play and Brown to fly out to right.
The Trojans used the fifth inning to break the tie and take control of the game. Rob Shipman drew a lead-off walk and after a fly out Tyler Farmer drew a walk. Zak Orrison got hit in the back and loaded the bases for Kilgore Gailmard. Gailmard doubled into the right field corner and the ball rolled out of play for a two RBI-ground rule double as Shipman and Farmer came home. Jason Morozowskisingle after a pitching change and drove home Orrison with an RBI-single to right. Manning plated his second RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to left center and Gailmard tagged up and gave Mount Olive a 5-1 lead.
Kines retired the next 12 Wingate batters and closed the door to pick up the complete game win. Kines (9-2) allowed just one run off four hits and struck out nine in his outing.
"Later on in the game I developed my curve ball a lot more than how I started and my change up started going further down in the zone. The scouting report that we had was for us to expand the zone and we just had to go out and execute it" Kines in his post-game press conference.
Brett Morgan (7-4) for Wingate picked up the loss as he gave up five runs off two hits and struck out three.
"We won a baseball game today with three hits so obviously the man to my left Gunnar Kines did a fabulous job. We were glad we had him on the mound today. North Georgia is good from what I saw today. We are going to have to get better on the offensive side no doubt about it and we need another performance like we had today." Said head coach Carl Lancaster.
Mount Olive moves on to play North Georgia in the winner's bracket game tomorrow at 7 p.m. The last time Mount Olive faced North Georgia was in 2008 when the Trojans won the NCAA DII National Championship.