Furman's Grant Schuermann pitched his best game of the season, outdueling dominant Citadel starter J.P. Sears Friday, as the Paladins rallied for a 4-2 win at Latham Stadium. After having its eight-game winning streak snapped Wednesday, Furman came back for its seventh straight Southern Conference win.
Sears entered the game with a SoCon-best 2.00 ERA and the third-most strikeouts (96) in the country. The Citadel staked Sears to a 2-0 lead Friday with two-out RBI-singles in the third and fourth innings.
In the bottom of the fourth, Carter Grote led off with the first home run allowed by Sears since March 10. Sky Overton followed with a triple and scored on Brandon Elmy's groundball to tie the game 2-2.
After Sears recorded the first two outs in the sixth, Landon Kay singled and Sims Griffith followed with a homer to left giving Furman a 4-2 lead.
Schuermann and relievers Heath Hawkins and Tyler Kimbrell made the lead hold up as Citadel had just one baserunner the rest of the way. Schuermann (4-4) allowed two runs, one earned, on nine hits over seven innings. He had no walks and five strikeouts.
Hawkins retired the Bulldogs in order in the eighth and Kimbrell did the same in the ninth. Kimbrell earned his first save in style, striking out a pair of batters to end the game.
Sears (4-2) allowed four runs on seven hits in seven innings, with one walk and six strikeouts. It's the most runs and fewest strikeouts Sears has posted in SoCon play. In his four other SoCon games this season, Sears allowed six runs combined and piled up a total of 53 strikeouts.
Jonathan Sabo went 3-for-4 with a run scored to lead Citadel (12-27, 3-10).
Overton and Jabari Richards each had two hits for the Paladins (20-21, 8-8), who won for the first time this season when scoring four runs or fewer. Furman had been 0-14 in those games.
The teams play game two of the series Saturday with a new scheduled start time of noon.
*Video courtesy of Dan Scott.
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