Erskine Wins 2023 Baseball Developmental Championship
BOX SCORE | FLORENCE, S.C. – Erskine won the 2023 Conference Carolinas Baseball Developmental Championship 9-2 over Chowan at Sparrow Stadium on the campus of Francis Marion on Monday night.
The event, which is a unique championship opportunity for developmental teams within Conference Carolinas, consisted of a preliminary round at Belmont Abbey and Erskine on April 3 with the winners of each preliminary round playing in the championship at Francis Marion.
Erskine defeated Emmanuel, 9-4, and King, 7-6, to advance to the championship while Chowan defeated Barton, 3-0, and Francis Marion, 9-4, to earn their spot in the title game.
In the title game, the Flying Fleet scored first in the top of the first as Chaz Knight tripled to left field with one out and scored on a wild pitch. Erskine added another in the second as Logan Palmas singled and scored two batters later on a Chowan error off the bat of Julio Illidg.
Chowan cut the lead in half in the bottom of the third on an Ethan Robinson home run to left field. Erskine wasted no time in getting the run back as Ryan Turner and Zion Clonts delivered back-to-back RBI singles in the fourth to push the lead to three, 4-1. The Hawks were able to answer in the bottom of the fourth as Daniel Paciullo plated Brendan Sanzo with an RBI groundout.
Things remained close until the sixth when the Flying Fleet broke things wide open with five runs on four hits and an error to push the lead to seven, 9-2. Erskine batted nine in the inning which was highlighted by a Clonts three-run home run to left field. Then with two on and one out, Banks Starbu singled in a pair for the seven-run advantage.
Clonts, Knight and Ryan Turner each had two hits to pace the nine-hit attack for Erskine while Clonts had four RBIs and a run scored. Gordon Soffel got the start and allowed two runs with two hits, four walks and four strikeouts over four innings. Jaron Cortese earned the win with three hitless innings of relief with one walk and two strikeouts.
Clonts was named tournament Most Outstanding Player for his offensive prowess in the win for the Flying Fleet.
More information can be found on the tournament webpage here.
In the fall Conference Carolinas announced that a developmental championship would be held in men’s and women’s soccer, men’s basketball and baseball. The developmental teams are composed of student-athletes that have either not competed at the varsity level in 2022-23 or have competed sparingly at the varsity level by the time of the championship.