CARY, N.C. – Game three of the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team’s Stars vs. Stripes intrasquad series saw the Stars score early and often to pull away for a 16-0 rout of the Stripes Tuesday evening at the National Training Complex.
Charlie Condon (Georgia) and Christian Moore (Tennessee) powered the Stars’ 17-hit barrage with matching 3-for-4 performances, while nine different players recorded at least one RBI for the victors.
On the mound, six different Stars pitchers combined to blank the Stripes on four hits, while racking up 13 strikeouts. Starter Drew Beam (Tennessee) set the tone early, allowing just one hit over the first three innings, before Evan Chrest (Jacksonville) and Christian Coppola (Rutgers) teamed up for five additional innings of one-hit relief.
In all, the Stars scored in seven of the first eight innings to take a two-games-to-one lead in the four-game series.
KEY MOMENTS
- The Stars seized the lead in the first, capitalizing on a one-out walk to Cam Cannarella (Clemson) and a **Jace LaViolette (Texas A&M) **single;Condon followed with a sacrifice fly to deep center to bring in the first run of the night.
- Moore doubled the Stars’ lead in the second when he led off the frame with a towering home run to left-center field.
- With one out still in the second,** Rodney Green Jr. (Cal) singled, swiped second and scored on Kaelan Culpepper’s (Kansas State) **double off the wall in left; **Griff O’Ferrall (Virginia) **capped the rally with an opposite-field, RBI single through the right side of the Stripes’ infield.
- Beam turned in a strong 3.0-inning stint, allowing just a two-out, infield hit in the first before retiring seven straight batters.
- The Stars added two more in the third on run-scoring hits by the two Moore’s—Christian and Malcolm Moore (Stanford), then broke the game wide open with a four-run sixth, highlighted by an O’Ferrall RBI double and run-producing hits by Cannarella and Culpepper.
- The Stars added three more in the seventh, with **Ethan Anderson (Virginia) **driving in a run, before a pair of late Stripes defensive miscues led to a pair of unearned runs.
NOTEWORTHY
- Five different Stars turned in multi-hit performances, with O’Ferrall,** Kodey Shojinaga (Kansas) **and Culpepper each finishing with two hits.
- Coppola allowed just one hit while striking out four over his 3.0 innings, after Chrest retired all six batters he faced over 2.0 innings.
- Jay Woolfolk (Virginia), Ben Abeldt (TCU) and Tyson Neighbors (Kansas State) each logged scoreless frames to help close out the victory for the Stars.
- Cannarella reached base safely in three of his six trips to the plate, scoring two runs and driving in another
- Michael Massey (Wake Forest) worked two perfect innings to close out the game for the Stripes, striking out three batters.
- **Mason Nichols (Ole Miss) **added a scoreless inning of relief for the Stripes as well.
- Both Condon (6-for-12) and Shojinaga (5-for-10) hiked their team-leading batting averages to .500 through the first three games of the series.
ON DECK
- The Collegiate National Team will return to the USA Baseball National Training Complex Wednesday (June 28) with the fourth and final game of its Stars vs. Stripes series at 6 p.m. ET.
- The 20th USA vs. Chinese Taipei International Friendship Series will take place from June 30-July 4, with games at the National Training Complex, the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, Atrium Health Ballpark in Kannapolis, and Segra Stadium in Fayetteville.
- The National Training Complex will host the opening three games of the 44th USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Championship Series from July 7-9, while games four and five of the series will be played at Joseph Riley, Jr. Park in Charleston on July 11 and 12.
- Tickets for this year’s Collegiate National Team Training Camp, along with all tickets to Team USA’s games against Chinese Taipei and Japan, can be found HERE.
SOCIAL MEDIA
- Stay tuned to @USABaseballCNT on Twitter for the most up-to-date news about the 2023 Collegiate National Team Training Camp.
