ELON – The Elon baseball team (14-21, 6-12 CAA) used a strong bullpen performance and a
Gar Hindle grand slam to vault past William & Mary (14-20, 6-9 CAA), 9-4 on Sunday.
Hindle closed out a solid week at the plate with his first career home run. The game changing grand slam punctuated a four-run eighth inning to seal the win.
Gavin Bogdanchik and
Brian DuRoff both drove in two runs each on Sunday.
The bullpen trio of
Sam Nomura,
Cole Taylor and
Mike Staiano kept the William & Mary offense silent over the final four innings. Nomura struck out three while Staiano clinched his third save of the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- William & Mary used small ball to strike in the first with a steal of home on a Tommy Mitchell pick-off.
- The Tribe added two more runs in the third on a sacrifice fly and another steal of home.
- Elon answered in the bottom of the third with a sacrifice fly from Brian DuRoff.
- William & Mary used small ball to their advantage in the fourth with a run scoring sacrifice bunt.
- The Phoenix countered in the fifth with another RBI from DuRoff on a single to center field.
- The Elon offense turned the game in the seventh. A bases loaded single from Charlie Evans cut the lead to one. Off the bench, Gavin Bogdanchik hit a single to left field that brought in two and gave the Phoenix the lead.
- Hindle blew the game open in the eighth with his grand slam that finished off the Tribe.
QUICK HITS
- Gar Hindle hit his first career home run on Sunday. Hindle is the first Phoenix freshman to hit a grand slam since Charlie Granatell cleared the bases against Towson (05/15) in 2022. Hindle drove in four runs for the second time in his last five CAA games.
- Brian DuRoff continued to swing a hot bat on Sunday. DuRoff drove in two runs and scored two runs in the win.
- Gavin Bogdanchik provided another late-inning spark. Bogdanchik hit the go-ahead single in the seventh to give Elon a one-run lead. In his last two at-bats, Bogdanchik has homered and delivered a two-RBI single.
- Jackson Alford got back on track with a multi-hit game. Alford scored twice and stole his 27th base of the season on Sunday.
- Charlie Evans collected a multi-hit game with a pair of singles.
- Jared Hall scored twice and stole a base in the win. Hall is second on the team in stolen bases with 12.
- Tommy Mitchell started his third straight his third Sunday game in CAA play. Mitchell went five innings and allowed four runs.
- Sam Nomura pitched two innings of shutout relief. Nomura has struck out multiple batters in his last four relief appearances.
- Mike Staiano earned his third save of the season. Staiano went 1.1 innings and struck out a batter.
UP NEXT
Elon hosts Winthrop on Tuesday night. First pitch between the Phoenix and Eagles will be at 6 p.m.
