Box Score Emory University sophomores Jackson Weeg and Kyle Monk combined for a one-hit shutout of 16th-ranked Case Western Reserve University on Saturday night to lead the second-ranked Eagles to a 3-0 win and at least a share of the 2015 University Athletic Association Championship.
The UAA Title is the 13th for the Eagles, and their second-consecutive conference championship, after splitting the title with the Spartans in 2014. Emory will have an opportunity to wins its seventh outright UAA crown tomorrow, when the team wraps up tournament play against Washington University (Mo.) at 10:00 am in Sanford, Florida.
Emory currently leads Washington by a game in the UAA standings with a 6-1 overall record at the conference tournament. The Eagles improved to 12-4 overall on the season, while Case Western Reserve dropped to 4-3, both overall and in UAA play.
Weeg was masterful in the game, allowing just one hit, a single to Aaron Cain in the top of the second inning. He walked just two batters in his seven innings of work, improving to 5-0 and lowering his ERA to 1.30 for the year. In two starts at the UAA Championships, both against the Spartans, the southpaw went 2-0 with a 0.71 ERA.
Emory took the lead in the third, scoring a pair of runs on a sacrifice fly from senior Brett Lake and an RBI single from senior Wes Peacock to take a 2-0 advantage.
The two runs would prove to be all Weeg needed. The sophomore was able to work out of no-out, two-on situations in both the sixth and seventh innings. In the sixth, a walk and an error, followed by a sacrifice bunt, put two Spartans in scoring position with one out, but Weeg got Jordan Swisher to pop out and Alex Capetillo to strike out to end the threat. In the seventh, he started the inning with a walk and a hit batter, but got preseason all-American Andrew Gronski to ground out and back-to-back strikeouts of Danny Souza and Antonio Damiano to end the inning unscored upon again.
The Eagles added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh when sophomore Chris Young doubled to start the inning, and later scored on an RBI single from junior David Coble over a pulled-in infield. Monk would take over on the mound from there, retiring the first five batters he faced in the game, and getting a fly out to centerfield to end the game with the tying run at the plate after an error and a walk.
It was the fifth save of the season for Monk and his third of the UAA Championships, as he lowered his ERA to a team-best 1.08 in 2015.
Fans can track the Eagles' quest for the outright UAA Championship on Sunday with live stats, available at http://emoryathletics.com/sports/bsb/LiveStats.
