The Duke Report: February 3
Author: News Bureau
Posted: Monday, February 3, 2014 3:48 PM
Category:
Athletics
Macon, GA
The Knights had five teams in action this week as baseball, men’s tennis and women’s tennis all kicked off their seasons and the men’s and women’s basketball teams reach the final month of play.
Baseball: The Knights opened the coaching era of Coach Paul Knight with a 3 game sweep of Southern Union State CC on Saturday and Sunday. The Bison went quietly in Saturday’s opener 7-2 as the Knights scored 7 runs and then allowed 2 late and Tanner Love picked up the win. Sunday’s games were closer as Game 1 was 3-1. The Knights started the scoring in the 4th when Andrew Stroud (Leesburg, GA) walked with one out in front of Chris Hojas’s (Hialeah, FL) triple that gave the Knights a 1-0 lead. Alex White (Lavonia, GA) followed Hojas with an RBI single to make the lead 2-0. The Bison got 1 in the 6th on an RBI Single after an error allowed a runner to reach second making the game 2-1 but the Knights got that run back in the bottom of the 6th. Hojas walked and got to third on a single by White before Jamal Cummings drove him in with an RBI groundout. Justin Flores (McDonough, GA) struck out the final two batters to pick up the save while Josh Benson (Culloden, GA) got the win.
Game 2 on Sunday brought a little more excitement as the Knights took the early lead when Danny Delgado (Miami Springs, FL) doubled to open the game and Spencer Duffie (Appling, GA) drove him in with a single two batters later. The Knights picked up two more in the 3rd on a 2-run triple by Drew Kelley (Bainbridge, GA) that plated Duffie and Delgado who both reached on walks. The Bison got a run in the 4th and another in the 5th to make it 3-2 before the Andrew Stroud drove in Duffie in the bottom of the 5th to make it 4-2. The game remained that way until 1 out in the 7th (final inning of doubleheader) when Chris Daniel of the Bison hit a homerun with runners on first and 3rd. However, Daniel passed Cam Sanders who was on first and waiting to make sure the ball was not caught and Daniel was called out making it a 2-run homerun and a tied ball game at 4-4. The game remained that way until the bottom of the 9th when Delgado reached base for 5th time in the game on his 3rd hit and moved over to second on a single by Duffie. The hero of the game became Kelley with a single with 2 outs that drove in Delgado and gave the Knights the win.
Visit http://stats.njcaa.org/sports/bsb/2013-14/div1/teams/MiddleGeorgiaStateCollege for a full listing of stats and box scores from all three games.
Men’s Tennis: The Knights men traveled to Oxford College of Emory University in Oxford to open the season with a conference matchup. The Knights came out on top 9-0 with 26th ranked Shem Alexis (Grenada) leading the way at #1 Singles with a win and joining Camden Jones (Macon, GA) in doubles as the 22nd ranked pairing won 8-5. Grant Wood (Woodstock, GA), Austin Ross (Douglas, GA), C. Jones, Dylan Jones (Warner Robins, GA), and Brantley Stone (Hazlehurst, GA) each won their singles matches while Wood/Ross and D. Jones/Stone won their doubles to sweep the match and put the Knights at 1-0 in their first season back since the early 2000s.
Women’s Tennis: The Knights women also traveled to Oxford College at Emory University in Oxford to open their season. The team won their match 6-3. Shelby Ashley (Warner Robins, GA) won at the #1 singles position while she and partner Tricia Wharton (Warner Robins, GA) won their doubles match as the 39th ranked pairing in the nation. Elizabeth Culpepper (Dexter, GA) and Virginia Hargrove (Eastman, GA) also won their singles matches while the Eagles forfeited the 6 singles spot and 3 doubles spot to the Knights.
Men’s Basketball: The Knights men have gone through a tough season as they reach the final stretch. Currently 5-16 after a loss to South Georgia State on February 1, the Knights are 2-9 in conference and unlikely to make the conference tournament currently sitting 3 games behind the 6th seed. The Knights could make a run with 9 conference games remaining. The Knights only win in January came against the current 6th seed East Georgia State. The Knights lost 4 of their games by 5 points or less and were in most of the games until the final minute. The bright spot for the season has been Roshaun Milline (Milledgeville, GA) who has averaged 16.7 points per game this season including 40 points on January 13 in a 84-83 loss to EGSC. Milline has averaged 20.3 PPG for the month of January. The other bright spot for the Knights has been the play of Brandon Ingleton (Woodstock, GA) who has averaged 10.7 PPG and 7.4 rebounds per game. Coach Moe will be looking for his team to make a hard run at the GCAA playoffs with a good February.
Women’s basketball: The Knights women have also been through a tough stretch in 2014 after ending 2013 with a win. They picked up just one win in the month of January and have fallen to 7-10 after a loss at Darton State on February 1. The team is 4-9 in conference play and currently sits 1.5 games behind the 6 seed. Their lone win came against EGSC on the same Knight as the men but the team has struggled through seven losses out of the last eight games. The Knights have been led by Freshman Va’Queshia Hall (Macon, GA) with 14.1 PPG, 8.6 rebounds and 3.8 blocks per game. The Knights will look to make a run at the GCAA tournament as well with a strong February and 7 conference games all that remains this season.
Softball: The softball team looked very strong in exhibition games against travel teams the past two weekends and look to get a good start on a tough schedule playing many ranked teams in tournament play in the month of February. The Knights open their season against Darton State this Thursday the 6th at 2PM in a doubleheader.
Upcoming Games:
2/3/14: Women’s Basketball at 5:30 PM at Atlanta Metro
Men’s Basketball at 7:30 PM at Atlanta Metro
2/5/14: Baseball at 4:00 PM at Southern Union State CC in Wadley, AL
Women’s Basketball at 5:30 PM at Georgia Highlands College in Rome, GA
Baseball at 6:30 PM at Southern Union State CC in Wadley, AL
Men’s Basketball at 7:30 PM at Georgia Highlands College in Rome, GA
2/6/14: Softball at 2:00 PM at home vs Darton State College
Softball at 4:00 PM at home vs Darton State College
2/7/14: Softball at 5:00 PM at Jacksonville, FL vs Miami Dade College
Softball at 7:00 PM at Jacksonville, FL vs Florida State College at Jacksonville
2/8/14: Softball at 11:00 AM at St. Augustine, FL vs Hillsborough Community College
Baseball at 1:00 PM at USC-Lancaster in Lancaster, SC
Men’s Tennis at 1:00 PM at College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick, GA
Women’s Tennis at 1:00 PM at College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick, GA
Softball at 1:15 PM at St. Augustine, FL vs Tallahassee CC
Baseball at 3:30 PM at USC-Lancaster in Lancaster, SC
Softball at 5:15 PM at St. Augustine, FL vs East Florida State College
2/9/14: Softball at 9:00 AM at St. Augustine, FL vs Miami Dade College
Baseball at 12:00 PM at USC-Lancaster in Lancaster, SC
Softball at 1:15 PM at St. Augustine, FL vs Indian River State College
Baseball at 3:30 PM at USC-Lancaster in Lancaster, SC
2/10/14:Women’s Basketball at 5:30 PM at home vs Albany Tech
Men’s Basketball at 7:30 PM at home vs Albany Tech