
Wildcats Build Early Lead, Hold Off Lehigh to Win Series
2/20/2022 4:54:00 PM | Baseball
The Wildcats took two of three from the Mountain Hawks on the season's first weekend.
"We responded well after a shaky first game," said Davidson coach Rucker Taylor. "Lehigh has a good club and played well. I'm glad we responded and played better the second half of the weekend."
Hinderleider's fifth-inning solo home run to right-center, the team's first blast of the year, capped a 5-0 lead for the Wildcats, who added four runs in the sixth to push their lead to 9-2.
Lehigh's Justin Butler hit a grand slam in the seventh to pull the Mountain Hawks within three runs, and they loaded the bases against Bennett Flynn in the ninth. But Flynn forced a flyout to Trevor Candelaria in right to end it and record his second save in as many days.
A Carico RBI-double drove in the game's first run as part of a three-run third that also included Candelaria scoring on a wild pitch and Douglas driving in Carico with a single.
Carico's RBI-single in the fourth drove in Parker Nolan and made it 4-0.
In the sixth, John Hosmer's sacrifice fly plated Ryan Wilson before Douglas drove in two with a hard-hit double down the left field line. Hinderleider then singled in Douglas to make it 9-2.
Candelaria and Nolan added two hits apiece.
Lefty Ryan Feczko made his first start and threw four innings, allowing five hits and striking out five.
Taylor was pleased to see his team bounce back from Friday's loss with two straight wins.
"Ryan Kutz on Saturday really settled things down for us coming into the game and turned the weekend around," he said. "Feczko gave us a great start today to keep momentum. Lehigh took advantage of some mistakes, but I thought our defense in the outfield helped limit some things.
"We had great crowds all weekend. Friday night's was very impressive in tough weather. We're very appreciative of the community coming out to support us."
Up Next
The Wildcats host Radford Tuesday at Wilson Field, with first pitch set for 6 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Feczko, Ryan (1-0)
L: Pave, Nick (0-1)
S: Flynn, Bennett (2)
Batting:
2B: Butler, Justin 1
HR: Butler, Justin 1
RBI: Butler, Justin 4 ; Kohl, Andrew 1
SH: Carlson, Chase 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Whitlinger, Jake 1 ; Rother, Casey 2 ; Butler, Justin 2 ; Carlson, Chase 1
SB: Rother, Casey 1
HBP: Kohl, Andrew 1 ; Nole, Andrew 1
PO: Whitlinger, Jake 1

Batting:
2B: Carico, Michael 1 ; Douglas, Tyler 1 ; Nolan, Parker 1
HR: Hinderleider, Jacob 1
RBI: Carico, Michael 2 ; Hosmer, John 1 ; Douglas, Tyler 3 ; Hinderleider, Jacob 2
SF: Hosmer, John 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wilson, Ryan 2 ; Candelaria, Trevor 1 ; Carico, Michael 2 ; Wilhoit, Jake 1 ; Douglas, Tyler 1 ; Hinderleider, Jacob 1 ; Nolan, Parker 1
SB: Carico, Michael 1
HBP: Wilson, Ryan 2