GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Charles Hall pitched eight shutout innings with 11 strikeouts to pace Tusculum University to a 9-0 win over Coker College Friday night in South Atlantic Conference baseball action.
Hall and Kent Noe combined on a two-hitter as the Pioneers (22-12, 10-3 SAC) record their third shutout of the season and improve to 14-1 at Pioneer Park. The Cobras (11-19, 5-11 SAC) suffers their fifth straight loss.
Hall (5-1) records his eighth consecutive game with double-digit strikeouts and increases his NCAA Division II national leading total to 110 strikeouts in his nine outings. He threw 94 pitches as he surrendered a pair of singles as no Coker runner got to second base.
Hall's 110 strikeouts are also tied for the second-most in school history with Placido Torres' 2015 season-total of 110.
Tusculum scored its nine runs on just seven hits as the Pioneers drew 10 walks, had two hit batters and recorded six stolen bases.
Jarel McDade was the lone player to have a multi-hit contest as he went 2-for-4 including his three-run homer in the seventh inning.
The Pioneers plated three runs in the first inning as Daulton Martin led off with his team-leading eighth home run of the season. Later in the inning, Trey Hinton belted a two-run double for a 3-0 TU advantage.
TU added a run in the second when Zack Finchum reached on an error and later scored on a wild pitch for a 4-0 lead.
Coker reliever Michael DeLeo, who took over for starter Griffin Hollifield in the second inning, pitched well as he blanked the Pioneers from the third to the end of the sixth.
But in the bottom of the seventh, DeLeo ran into control problems as he walked Hinton and Garrett Dupuis with two outs. Jake Moore took over on the mound and McDade blasted a three-run homer off the scoreboard in left field for his fourth homer of the season and a 7-0 Tusculum lead.
TU tacked on two more runs in the eighth inning before Noe retired the Cobras in order in the ninth to end the game.
The two teams will wrap up their SAC weekend series on Saturday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader.
