Jaguars' pitching falters

As soon as Augusta State got ranked by Collegiate Baseball Magazine on Monday, it was bound to happen.

The No. 29-ranked Jaguars allowed 16 hits, left nine men on base and dropped the first of a four-game set to winless Barton College, 9-3, on Friday. The series resumes with a doubleheader at noon today and ends with a single game Sunday.

"I don't know if that's Skip Fite's Law. We get ranked then we come out and get beat," said Fite, Augusta State's head coach.

Augusta State's young pitching staff struggled early and often. Sophomore Alan Cannell allowed 10 hits and six earned runs in 5 2/3 innings, and sophomore Nathan James gave up three earned runs on four hits in 2 2/3 innings.

"I was disappointed with our pitching," Fite said. "There were a lot of balls thrown down the middle of the plate.

"Our pitching staff is young. Maybe it takes games like this to make them better."

Augusta State (3-2) trailed by two when it loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fourth. Garrett McGrath was hit by a pitch to pull the Jaguars within 3-2.

That's when Barton left-hander Chris Scott began sawing down Augusta State batters. Scott froze Jeff Macaione and Lee Rose for a pair of strikeouts before getting Sam Barth to chase a third strike.

"At that point, we needed something," Fite said. "That was our chance to win the ball game. When we didn't do anything that inning, I knew it was going to be tough to score the rest of the way."

The Jaguars trailed by three when they loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth, but Rose chopped an infield grounder to short to end the threat.

In the ninth, Barton (1-3) added to Augusta State's misery. The Bulldogs scored three runs on four hits to put the game out of reach.

"We talk about mental toughness a lot," Fite said. "We didn't deal with it today."

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