Cary, N.C. – The Piedmont College baseball team played the opening game against fellow USA South Athletic Conference member William Peace University Friday afternoon losing 3-0. The Pacers’ quality pitching performance proved to be too much for the Lions as Christian Neal picked up his second win of the season, as well as the second win for William Peace.
The Lions were unable to get any offensive rally going throughout the game scattering four hits. The Pacers would get on the board first in the bottom of the third inning.
After picking up two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Pacers sat with a 3-0 lead heading into the sixth inning. Piedmont’s best chance to score came two innings later with runners on second and third with one out but the Pacer’s Christian Neal shutdown the threat with a pair of strikeouts.
Neal’s performance came within five strikeouts of setting a new NCAA Division III record as he hurled his third complete game of the 2015 season and picked up an astounding 17 strikeouts along the way.
Not only do the 17 strikeouts mark a program and school best, but Neal currently sits in first place in all of NCAA Division III baseball players for strikeouts in a single game in the 2015 season.
Four other pitchers in the country have acquired 16 strikeouts, but Neal was the first one to throw 17 this season, with the NCAA record sitting at 22. He also currently leads all USA South pitchers in strikeouts for the season with 55 and astoundingly averages 10.54 strikeouts per game.
For the Lions, Chris Goershel started on the hill going six innings giving up eight hits and three runs. Matt Stephens followed him with the final two innings of playing with just two hits and recording a strikeout.
The Lions fall to 14-11 in the USA South Athletic Conference and 18-12 overall while the Pacers of William Peace improve to 2-23 in the conference and 2-25 overall on the 2015 season.
Game number two in the three-game series will be played Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. EST and fans are encouraged to follow the Lions with live stats courtesy of William Peace which can be found by visiting PiedmontLions.com.
