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Blue Eagles Sweep Chaos In Doubleheader
Web Posted June 6, 2010

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Spartanburg Blue Eagles defeated the Carolina Chaos 3-1 Sunday night in game 2 of a doubleheader. The victory for the Blue Eagles means a sweep of Sunday’s doubleheader and three wins out of four games against the Chaos for the weekend.

Head coach Ryan Thomas spoke about his team success, claiming it stemmed from how hard they have been working the past couple of days.

“We’ve had timely hitting, quality pitching, and good defense, said Thomas. “These performances came from our guys wants. We have had pregame practices and every single one of these guys have showed up and worked.”

Game one of the doubleheader featured the bat of Paul Nitto and the arm of Chris Nauff. The Blue Eagles cruised to a 9-6 victory behind Nitto’s two hit, two RBI performance. As for Knauff, he entered the game in the middle of the fifth inning and closed the door for the Chaos hitters holding them scoreless for the rest of the game.

USC-Lancaster’s Taylor Johnson started game 2 of the doubleheader for the Blue Eagles. Johnson threw 3.2 innings allowing one run before Coach Thomas replaced him with Wofford’s Ryan Traylor.

“Traylor really worked hard on his slider earlier today in our pre practice, said Thomas. “He was pumped up about throwing it today, so I decided I was going to use him in relief. Hey, it worked out for us because he did a heck of a job.”

That’s one way of phrasing Traylor’s performance; another way would be to say he threw 4.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen.

When Traylor entered the game, the score was knotted up at one apiece. It stayed that way until the fifth inning when Erskine shortstop Zach McCarthy lined a double to right center field that scored designated hitter Dylan Cole from second and right fielder Aaron Preston from first.

McCarthy described what was going through his head before hitting the double that gave the Blue Eagles a two run lead. “Well, I had two strikes on me and the last two at bats he had thrown me a change-up,” said McCarthy. “So I was sitting on it, (a change-up) and fortunately I was able to find a hole out there in right center field”.

The 2 RBI double gave the Blue Eagles a 3-1 lead that reliever Ryan Traylor would not relinquish.

Traylor became the pitcher of decision by closing out the game as he boosted his win loss record to 1-0. Chaos starter Bradley Love fell to 0-1 on the year after pitching 4.1 innings and allowing 3 runs.

After the sweep of the doubleheader, the Blue Eagles move to 4-2 on the season, while the Chaos drop to 2-4. The Blue Eagles are currently sitting in second place in the league standings, slightly trailing the Tennessee Tornados who are atop with a 4-0 record.

The Blue Eagles immediately have a chance to make up ground in the standings as they host the Tornados Monday June 7 at 7pm.