Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
In high school, Eric Maupin was the stud on the Galena High baseball team. He was all-conference, all-state and the hitter that every opposing pitcher worried about.
High school, though, was two years ago and since then Maupin has run into nothing but bad luck. That is until the 700-pound gorilla was lifted off his back Friday when the second-year freshman provided four RBIs and a key hit that sparked the Western Nevada baseball team to 6-4 and 3-1 victories over Salt Lake at John L. Harvey Field.
"It seems like it's been like this all year, every time I hit the ball hard it's right at someone," said Maupin, who came into the series hitting a paltry .162. "Today, they were just finding the holes. It feels really good to be able to get some hits."
He went 2-for-3 in the first game with the four RBIs and was 1-for-2 in the second.
The Wildcats (26-6 SWAC, 32-12) will look to complete the sweep of the Bruins (14-18, 21-23) and stay one game up in the Scenic West Athletic Conference standings with another doubleheader beginning at noon today. Southern Nevada trails the Wildcats with a 25-7 conference record.
During Maupin's senior year in high school he batted .457 with 12 home runs and 44 RBIs, then spent one redshirt season at Washington State last year before coming to the Wildcats in the offseason. Despite being one of the hardest hitters on the team, he has consistently hit the ball into the gloves of the opposition all year and has been relegated to the No. 7 or No. 8 hitter much of the season.
"I think I get a lot more fastballs because I've been struggling a little bit hitting down in the order," said Maupin, who hopes seeing fastballs more will help him break out of his slump.
Maupin hit what would be the game-winning single in the bottom of the fifth when he came up with runners on second and third. He took a first-pitch fastball that he pushed back up the middle and into centerfield, scoring Travis Feiner and Cory Raymond. The runs broke a 4-4 tie.
In the second game, Maupin hit a 1-1 pitch to left for a single in the fifth. He was replaced on the bases by Jerome Pena, who came home to tie the game at 1-1.
"He's had more hard contact for outs than any player on our team," WNC coach D.J. Whittemore said. "It's not that he's been having bad at bats, it's just that has had bad luck and it takes a special person and a player like him to battle through it, come out the other side and help us win today."
Maupin's hits helped the Wildcats overcome four errors in the first game, the most they've committed since Feb. 4 when they made seven against Riverside Community College.
Despite his efforts in the second game, it was largely a pitcher's duel. David Carroll bested Salt Lake's Zane Gray as both went the distance. If it weren't for two bad pitches by Gray, the game would have likely gone into extra innings.
Gray threw a 2-1 pitch up in the zone to Lance Ray, who signed a letter of intent earlier in the day to Kentucky, that was crushed over the right field fence in the bottom of the sixth. On the very next pitch, Brian Barnett blasted another homer to left field to give WNC a 3-1 lead.
Carroll returned to the mound for the top of the seventh where he stuck out David Johnson and forced Felix Segovia and Brandon Keller to ground out end the game.
Carroll (3-3) threw a two-hitter and made 13 of the 25 batters ground out. He also struck out four in the game.
"We were just focusing on throwing strikes, throw low in the zone so they don't hit us hard," the freshman said. "That's just what I was doing. I tried to pound the fastball as much as I could, locate my breaking ball."