Lions down Northwood, 8-5, at home
The Mars Hill baseball team hit four homeruns in their 8-5 win Tuesday afternoon versus Northwood at Henderson Field.
MARS HILL, N.C. – The Mars Hill baseball team hit four homeruns in their 8-5 win Tuesday afternoon versus Northwood at Henderson Field.
Mars Hill homered twice in the bottom of the first inning. Leading off for the Lions, Daniel Vitello was hit by a pitch. Hitting his first homerun of the year, Travis Owens put Mars Hill up 2-0 with a shot to left-center field. Following a strikeout from Matt Honeycutt, Christian Stampler took Matt Pearsall deep for the second homerun of the inning to give the Lions a 3-0 lead. The blast was his second of the season.
Northwood got on the board in the top of the third with a RBI double from Nick Palmer. The Timberwolves loaded the bases with one out in the frame, but Mike Ramunno battled out of the inning, striking out Javier Martinez and getting Keaton Sackett to fly out to right field.
Lance Edwards put the Lions up 5-1 with a two-run blast to left-center field followed by a solo homerun by Cody Cline. The Lions entered the top of fourth inning up 6-1 off of four homeruns.
Northwood once again loaded the bases and with two outs, a balk plated one run to narrow the deficit to four runs. David Vinsky hit a ball deep into center field, but Vitello made the catch to end the threat and top of the fourth inning.
The Timberwolves would get on the board in the sixth inning off of a Vinsky RBI single, driven into center field. Stampler added his second RBI in the bottom of the seventh with a single that scored Owens.
Boasting a threat in the top of the eighth, Northwood scored two runs to pull within two runs. Martinez ripped a ball off of the leg of Kaleb McCurry that plated Ryan McClelland. With Vinsky on third, a sacrifice fly from Brooks Ullery cut the Mars Hill lead down to 7-5 heading into the bottom of the eighth.
Cody Cline tripled with one out in the bottom of the eighth and was driven home by an Owens RBI single into left-center field for the Lions' eighth run of the contest. It was Owens' third RBI of the contest.
Ramunno pitched four innings, striking out four and allowing two runs. Bryson Bailey earned the victory for Mars Hill, striking out two and allowing one run on one hit in two innings pitched. Pearsall allowed three runs off of five hits in two innings pitched for the Northwood loss.
The Lions improve to 3-8 while Northwood falls to 1-3. Mars Hill heads to Brevard Wednesday, February 21 for a 2 p.m. tilt.
