Copperheads Win Weekend Series to Take Title from Redbirds

Huntersville, NC (July 25, 2010) In a jumble of static and frantic frenzy, it was almost impossible for  internet broadcast listeners to discern what happened here Saturday night, until one phrase escaped the background noise and rang out clearly:

“Copperheads win it!  Copperheads win it!”

After falling behind 0-1 in the Southern Collegiate Baseball League Championship Series on Thursday, the East Division Champion Lake Norman Copperheads won two games in a row over the West Division Champion Asheville Redbirds, 7-4 Friday in Asheville and 6-4 Saturday here, to take the Jeffers Cup and league title.

With a Game 1 win under their belt, the Redbirds looked to close out the series early on Friday as the series moved to Asheville for Game 2.  Scoring one off Copperheads starter Will Helms (Charlotte, NC) in the third, the Redbirds got five scoreless behind Jacob White (Elkin, NC) before he allowed a run to come home in the sixth and left with two outs.  Lake Norman got an unearned run off reliever Matt Tipton (Swannanoa, NC) to take a 2-1 lead.

After a scoreless seventh, they exploded for five late runs on five hits off Nick Jones (Waynesville, NC) in a fateful eighth, and while the Redbirds rallied for three in the bottom with home runs by Tommy Reed (Brandon, FL) and Mike Vaughn (Cornelius, NC), it was as close as they could get, 7-4.

Wes Hatley (Norwood, NC) weathered the three runs (two earned) in 3 1-3 innings, striking out five and picking up the win for Lake Norman.  Although no Copperheads hit for extra bases, station-to-station ball was enough with multiple-hit performances by Tyler Zupcic (Charlotte, NC), Dan Haverstick (Marlton, NJ) and Tyler Tewell (Charlotte, NC), with Zupcic driving in one and scoring one.  D.J. Jarrad (Portage, MI) finished 1-4 with a team-best two RBIs along with a run scored.

Jones took the decision for Asheville, while Reed and Vaughn each had two RBIs.  Anthony Lanetta (Asheville, NC) was 1-2 with a walk and a run scored, while Cody Moliterno (East Moline, IL) scored another run.

A tied series came to Hopewell High School for all the marbles Saturday, and Lake Norman defended their home turf with a stellar start for Lance Honeycutt (Coats, NC), who allowed one earned run and struck out an incredible 10 batters in five innings.

Asheville loaded the bases and grabbed a run in the first thanks in part to a Lake Norman error, but the Copperheads manufactured two in the first and one in the second, with Zupcic driving in one and scoring another.  Battling back in the fourth, Asheville took advantage of another error, which led to a two-run game-tying single for Dalton Hardee (Boone, NC).  Again, the Copperheads took a lead in the fifth as Ryan Stetson (Charlotte, NC) singled, advanced to second and third on consecutive ground-outs, and came home on a Mark Heil (Clayton, MO) single to make it 4-3.

Insurance came in the eighth for Lake Norman as Tewell led off with a double, Shane Basen (Waxhaw, NC) reached on an error and Jarrad doubled both in to take a 6-3 lead.  That was all the Copperheads needed.  Asheville fought to the end, getting a run on a Cody Buch (Charlotte, NC) sacrifice fly in the ninth off Tanner Merritt (Greenville, NC).  Merritt’s performance, however, merited a save as he worked the last four innings to close out the game and the championship.

Tyler Horan (Middleboro, MA), Haverstick and Tewell all went 2-4 for Lake Norman, while Tewell and Stetson both scored twice and Jarrad’s two RBI’s led the team.  Zupcic, Stetson, Haverstick and Heil knocked in one apiece.  Honeycutt got the win, allowing three total runs, just four hits, one walk and his 10 strikeouts.  He and Merritt struck out a combined 16 batters as Merritt worked the last four innings without a hit, fanning six.

Tommy Crowder (Arden, NC), who inherited a tied ballgame and gave up a go-ahead run in the fifth, registered the loss for Asheville.  Hardee drove in two of the four Redbird runs while Buch and Brett Mercurio (Loxahatchee, FL) tallied an RBI each.  Reed, Mercurio, Ben Brewer (Nashville, TN) and Zach Hutton (Bennington, NH) crossed the plate once apiece.  Only Hardee avoided a strikeout against the Copperhead battery.

Lake Norman, league runner-up the past two seasons, takes home the inaugural league championship under the new divisional structure, finishing 25-16 overall and 14-4 in East Division play out of the top seed in the division.  West Division Champ Asheville was, remarkably, 20-27 overall and an even 10-10 in divisional play after the two playoff wins, a testament to grit and determination down the stretch as they played out of the No. 3 seed in the West to a division championship.

Established in 1999, Southern Collegiate Baseball League adopted two divisions of four teams and the new divisional playoff format this season after adding its newest member, the Statesville Owls.  Stretching from northeast Tennessee through the Piedmont of North Carolina and into the Upstate of South Carolina, the league attracts players and coaches from NCAA Division I and II, NJCAA and NAIA schools.  In 2010, players represented 28 states, Canada and the Dominican Republic.  A member of the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball (NACSB), Southern Collegiate Baseball League and its members are officially sanctioned by Major League Baseball.