Baseball Drops Double-Header at Tusculum

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – Mars Hill lost a double-header at SAC foe Tusculum Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Park. The Lions lost the first game 6-3 and then dropped the nightcap, 9-0. Mars Hill fell to 26-18 overall and 11-13 in the South Atlantic Conference. The Pioneers improved to 31-11 on the season, 13-7 in the SAC.

Phillip Carroll, Dylan Powers and Rayshelon Carolina recorded two hits apiece to lead the Lions offensively in today's contests. Both of Powers hits were homeruns. Hunter Boydston suffered the loss (4-5) on the mound in game one while Tom Mastrodonato obtained the loss (3-3) in the second contest.

Game 1: Tusculum 6, Mars Hill 3

Tusculum rallied from an early two-run deficit to defeat Mars Hill 6-3 in Saturday's first game. Trailing 2-0, the Pioneers scored four runs, sparked by back-to-back homers from Nick Lacina and Cole Baxley.

Mars Hill jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a RBI single from Evan Rogers and a solo homer down the left field line off the bat of Dylan Powers.

The Pioneers got several opportunities through the first four innings but TC could not cash in and left six runners on base.

TC starter Christian Raasch bounced back from the rocky first frame and retired 13 of 15 batters, including a string of nine in a row.

In the Tusculum fifth inning, Jeremy Glore led off with walk and moved to second when Key reached on a fielding error. MHU starter Hunter Boydston got a double play ground out and moved Glore to third base. Kevin Victoriano hit a two-out RBI single to drive in TC's first run of the game. Lacina followed with his two-run homer over the center field wall to give Tusculum its first lead of the day. Baxley followed Lacina with a solo home run to left field for a 4-2 lead.

Powers answered in the Mars Hill sixth, with his second homer of the game and 11th of the season to pull the Lions to within 4-3.

In the top of the eighth, Brett Brubaker legged out an infield single to put the tying run on with no outs. McKenly Berry came on to relieve Raasch and got out of the inning with a ground out, strikeout and a line out to preserve the Tusculum lead.

The Pioneers added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the frame, including a RBI single from Jeovanny Tolentino and a RBI fielder's choice from Creighton Wilke.

Berry retired the side in order in the ninth, including a pair of strikeouts to end the game and secure his third save of the season.

Raasch improves to 7-2 on the season, allowing eight hits, three runs, one walk and fanned two. Boydston suffered the loss to fall to 4-5 on the year.

Game 2: Tusculum 9, Mars Hill 0

Tusculum jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Glore led off with a walk and scored on Key's RBI triple. Key would cross the plate himself on Wilke's sacrifice fly.

The Pioneers added two more runs in the fourth inning as Topoleski walked and moved to second on a Finchum bunt single. Glore and Key followed with back-to-back RBI singles as TC led 4-0.

Victoriano led off the fifth inning with a homerun. TC added four more runs in the sixth inning, including a two-run double from Wilke and RBI singles from Seth DeHaven and Jim Tolle.

Carpenter completed the shutout with seven strikeouts in the win.

Mars Hill will host Montreat on Wednesday, April 20. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.