Baseball Splits at Georgia Southwestern

AMERICUS, Ga. – The Lions' baseball team split a double header at Georgia Southwestern Saturday afternoon in Hurricane Stadium. Mars Hill lost the first game 2-0 and then won the nightcap by a score of 10-2. The Lions improved to 2-1 on the season while the Hurricanes took their season record to 1-1.

Game 1: GSU 2, MHU 0

Hunter Merrill led the Lions at the plate going 2-4 with a stolen base. Matt Honeycutt also went 2-4 while Christian Stampler was 1-2. Alec Bivens suffered the loss (0-1) on the mound for the Lions.

Josh Logan led GSU going 2-4 with an RBI while Will Redding also posted two hits including a double. Jordan McIlwain obtained the win on the mound (1-0) pitching five innings, scattering three hits and striking out two batters.

Logan singled to right field in the Hurricanes second at-bat to plate Zach Barron to give GSU a 1-0 lead. After Evan Alderman tripled to right-center to lead off the bottom of the third inning, Dakota Long later singled up the middle to drive in Alderman and make the final tally 2-0 in favor of the hosts.

Game 2: MHU 10, GSU 2

Merrill went 3-4 at the plate with a run scored and an RBI to pace the Lions offensively in game two. Honeycutt went 2-5 with three RBI, a double and a run scored. Christian Stampler went 2-5 with a triple, a run scored and two RBI. Zac Brown threw four innings allowing five hits and one run to obtain his first win (1-0) on the mound for MHU. He struck out six batters. Kaleb McCurry threw the final three innings allowing just one run on three hits and struck out three batters to pick up his first save of the season.

Alex Kranick led GSU at the plate going 2-3 with a run scored. Bradley Hough followed going 1-3 with an RBI. Dylan Brown took the loss (0-1) for the Hurricanes on the mound for GSU.

The Lions exploded for six runs in the first inning on four hits and one GSU error. The Inning was highlighted by a two-RBI triple from Stampler and a RBI double by Honeycutt.

Gray McCurry singled down the left field line to drive in Brett Brubaker in the top of the second inning to give MHU a 7-0 advantage. Hough singled to right field in the third inning to plate Kranick to make the score 7-1.

Mars Hill added two runs in the fifth frame when Honeycutt singled up the middle to drive in Daniel Vitello and Cody Cline. Barron singled to right field to plate Alderman for the Hurricanes final score of the contest in the bottom half of the fifth inning. A sacrifice fly by Vitello in the Lions' last at-bat sent Cline to the plate to make the final score 10-2 in favor of the Lions.

The teams will conclude the weekend series with a double-header at Hurricane Stadium. The first pitch is set for 1 p.m.