Baseball Splits with King
The Lions split a baseball double-header against King Monday afternoon at Henderson Field.
MARS HILL, N.C. – The Lions split a baseball double-header against King Monday afternoon at Henderson Field. Mars Hill won the first game 4-0 and then lost the nightcap, 13-5. MHU took their season record to 15-14 while King is now 11-15 on the year.
Game 1: MHU 4, King 0
Devin Mangum and Daniel Vitello led Mars Hill at the plate with two hits apiece. Mangum scored twice. Hunter Merrill went 1-2 with a RBI. Troy Hall pitched 5.0 innings allowing just one hit to pick up the win (1-2) on the mound for the Lions.
Braden Cook and Austin Dayton accounted for King's two hits in the contest. Mark Michael suffered the loss (0-1) for King on the mound.
Mangum scored on a fielder's choice in the second inning to give Mars Hill a 1-0 advantage. Lance Edwards crossed the plate on another fielder's choice to extend the Lions' advantage to 2-0 in Mars Hill's third at-bat. In the fourth inning, Christian Stampler scored when Cody Cline was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Mangum was later driven in by a sacrifice fly by Hunter Merrill to end the scoring in the game.
Game 2: King 13, MHU 5
Hunter Merrill went 2-3 with a RBI and a pair of runs scored to lead MHU offensively. Matt Honeycutt went 1-2 with a homerun and two RBI while Harrison Keslar went 1-1 with a homerun and two RBI. Alan Kolb suffered the loss (1-1) for the Lions on the mound.
Dayton was 2-3 at the plate with five RBI to pace King. J.P. Castaneda went 4-5 with a homerun, a double and four RBI. Brandon Barbour picked up the win (1-0) for King pitching in relief.
Honeycutt belted a two-run homerun in the first inning to give the Lions a 2-0 lead. After scoring a single run in the third inning, King scored four runs in the fourth frame on four hits and one Lion error. Dayton hit a two-RBI single in the at-bat.
Mars Hill tied the game at 5-all in the fifth inning scoring three runs on three hits and two King miscues. The at-bat was highlighted by a two-run homerun by Keslar down the right field line.
King put the game away in the sixth inning scoring five runs on three hits. Castaneda had a two-RBI double in the at-bat. King scored three insurance runs in the seventh inning on four hits and one Lion error. Dayton added two RBI in the at-bat with a single to right field to make the final tally 13-5 in favor of the visitors.
Mars Hill will host Newberry in a three-game South Atlantic Conference series this weekend. The teams will meet for a single game on Friday at 3 p.m. and then play a double-header beginning at 12 p.m. on Saturday.