Strong pitching, defense leads Demons to 4-2 opending day win

Scanio (1-0) ran his record as a Demon to 7-0 with the win and didn't allow a JSU hit until a leadoff base knock by Coty Blanchard in the fourth inning.  Meanwhile, Melotakis constantly hit 93-94 on the radar gun to pick up the save.

"The key to the game was the big first inning," said fifth year head coach J.P. Davis.  "We came out and moved runners around and worked the count and strung some hits together."

NSU put seven hits on the board with three of those coming in the first inning.

First baseman Will Watson led things off with a single up the middle and after newcomer and shortstop Matt Burns struckout looking, newcomers Matt Purdy and Matt Bacca reach on a walk and hit-by-pitch to load the bases.

Colin Bear knocked in the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly to center field to score Watson and make it 1-0, then back-to-back RBI singles by Nick Hinojos and Drew Helenihi added to the lead to make it 3-0 by the end of the inning.

"Having that big inning in the first allowed Joe (Scanio) to settle in," said Davis.  "He did a really nice job.  But he got into trouble in the fifth with a hit batter and a walk, and that's always a recipe for a big inning.

"I went out to settle him down after they got a run in and I told him to trade a run for the double play and that's exactly what he did."

The Demons led 4-0 when the Gamecocks got a run in the top of the fifth after Sam Eberle was hit-by-a-pitch then scored on a no-out single by Andrew Bishop two batters later.  But he got Jay Davis to hit into a 643 double play and followed that with a grounder to third by Michael Flores to snap the mild rally and hold JSU to two runs in the inning.

In the seventh, Scanio got the first two batters to ground out but then served up two straight walks and Davis went to Melotakis to close things out the final 2.1 innings.

"Joe wasn't tired he was just overthrowing," said Davis.  "Melo came in and did his job."

Hinojos led the Demons with a 2-for-4 game and a RBI and Burns, Bear and Helenihi each had a run batted in.  Jordan Buckley set a career-high with three stolen bases in all three attempts in the game as the Demons finished with six swipes in the contest.

"Overall, it was a really good game," said Davis. 

The two teams will play game two on Saturday night at 7 p.m. with NSU expected to start sophomore RHP Jacob Roark.