Baseball Loses at Wingate

WINGATE, N.C. – The Lions' baseball team lost the first contest in a three-game South Atlantic Conference series at no. 22 Wingate Friday night at Ron Christopher Stadium. Mars Hill fell to 5-13-1 overall and 2-5 in the league. The Bulldogs improved to 16-5 on the season, 5-2 in the SAC.

Travis Owens went 1-2 with a solo homerun to pace the Lions at the plate. Matt Honeycutt and Cody Cline each had a double and an RBI in the game. Zac Brown suffered the loss (1-2) throwing six innings allowing seven runs on nine hits. He struck out nine Wingate batters in the outing.

Tyler Schneider led the Bulldogs offensively with a three-run homerun in the fifth inning that later proved to be the game winning runs. Zach Little followed going 3-for-4 with a double. Hunter Morgan pitched 7.1 innings allowing three runs on six hits while striking out five batters to obtain his third win (3-0) of the season.

Tanner Forry put the Bulldogs on the board in the second inning by hitting a solo homerun to right field. Schneider then hit his three-run homerun to center field in the third frame to give Wingate a 4-0 advantage.

The Bulldogs added three insurance runs (7-0) in their sixth at-bat on four hits and one Lion error. The inning was highlighted leadoff homerun from Andrew Llewellyn.

A solo homerun by Owens and a RBI single by Barrett Hennings in the top of the seventh inning cut the deficit to 7-2. A RBI single by Brett Brubaker in the eighth inning scored Daniel Vitello to make the final tally 7-3 in favor of the hosts.

The teams will conclude the three-game SAC series tomorrow with a double-header beginning at 1 p.m.