Quarles, Costa help Furman claim series win

One day after a sloppy loss, Furman's battery powered the Paladins up to a series win Sunday. Matthew Quarles tossed a complete game and catcher Jason Costa had a perfect day at the plate and behind it as Furman downed North Carolina A&T 7-3 at Latham Stadium.
After tossing seven shutout innings at No. 20 Ole Miss last Sunday, Quarles turned in another terrific effort. The senior right-hander from Greenwood, who's battled high pitch counts at times during his Furman career, threw 109 pitches Sunday. His bullpen-saving performance came a day after the Paladins used five pitchers in an 11-10 loss.
"Matthew Quarles really threw the ball exceptionally well," Furman coach Brett Harker said. "(Quarles' breaking ball) is a game-changer. It breaks late and hard. For it to be a slow pitch, it throws hitters off because it doesn't look like it's going to do much and it disappears."
Quarles (2-1) allowed a first-inning run Sunday before tossing seven scoreless innings in which he faced just two batters over the minimum. North Carolina A&T's No. 3 and 4 hitters, Myles Sowell and Adan Ordonez, hit back-to-back homers with one out in the ninth, but Quarles got a strikeout and a groundout to short for the second complete game of his career. He finished with nine strikeouts and no walks.
Costa began his 4-for-4 batting day with a double leading off the second. He later scored on Sky Overton's sac fly to tie the game 1-1.
The game remained tied until the bottom of the sixth. With two outs, Overton belted a three-run home run to put Furman (10-8) on top for good.
Following an error-filled day Saturday, the Paladins committed two more Sunday. However, Costa cleaned up those messes as he threw out Aggies trying to steal after each error.
Costa capped his monster game with a homer leading off the eighth.
"That's as dominant a performance you can have and not be a pitcher," Harker said of Costa's showing. "He completely took over that game."
Sowell finished with three hits for North Carolina A&T (10-8) to raise his batting average to .492, which ranks third-highest in the country. Ordonez had two hits and drove in two runs giving him 24 RBIs this season.
Furman returns to action Tuesday at Georgia State at 6 p.m.
Saturday: North Carolina A&T 11, Furman 10

On Saturday, Ordonez went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and North Carolina A&T took advantage of ugly play by the Paladins to even the series. Furman was charged with three errors, but "there should've been six or seven if you count balls that should've been outs," according to Harker.
"When you play like that, you're going to have to do something special in order to still win," Harker said after Saturday's game. "We came up a little short in pulling off a miracle."
After Furman took the lead with a five-run third, the Aggies answered with a six-run fourth. North Carolina A&T built an 11-5 lead through six innings before the Paladins began chipping away.
Furman scored three in the seventh before Carter Grote's two-run homer in the eighth sliced the lead to 11-10.
Sky Overton was hit by a pitch leading off the bottom of the ninth. He reached second on an error and third on a balk, but Aggies' reliever Noah Dyals struck out Dillon Love to end the game. Dyals came on following Grote's homer with one out in the eighth and only allowed the one hit batter to record his second save.
Grote, Overton, Jake Crawford and Cameron Whitehead each had two RBIs for the Paladins.
*Videos courtesy of Dan Scott.