Shuey and Forshee rally Francis Marion past Catawba 11-7 at NCAA Regional

AIKEN, SC – Sophomore first baseman Preston Shuey drove in four runs with a pair of hits and righty reliever Brandon Forshee pitched 6.1 strong innings to help seventh-ranked and second-seeded Francis Marion University rally past 21st-ranked and fourth-seeded Catawba College 11-7, late Friday night (May 15) in a winners’ bracket game of the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional Baseball Tournament.

Francis Marion (38-13-1) extends its school-record winning streak to 17 games and advances to face sixth-seeded Belmont Abbey College in a winners’ bracket game on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.

Catawba (36-17) suffers its first loss of the double-elimination tournament and will face fifth-ranked and top-seeded USC Aiken in an elimination game on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Eight of the nine Patriot starters collected a hit. In addition to Shuey, Alex Lee and Jared Barkdoll also rapped out two hits.

Ryan Query (2-for-5), Brett Hatley (2-for-5), Kevin McMillan (2-for-5), and Zeb Link (2-for-3) paced the Catawba attack. Query and McMillan both drove in two runs each, while left fielder Cameron White homered.

Catawba scored five times in the bottom of the second inning to lead 5-0, ignited by White’s solo shot over the left field fence. Hartley, Query, McMillan, and Craige Lyerly all delivered run-scoring hits.

Francis Marion chipped away at the deficit scoring twice in the third (without a hit), once in the fourth, and four times in the fifth to lead 7-5. Catawba trimmed the margin to 7-6 with a single run in the bottom of the fifth, but FMU responded with four runs in the sixth to lead 11-6.

Forshee (5-2) relieved the Patriot starter in the second and allowed just one run on three hits in his longest outing of the season. Catawba reliever Travis McSweeney (3-2) took the loss.

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