Lions defeated by L-R

HICKORY, N.C. - The Mars Hill baseball team (7-26, 4-11 SAC) was swept Saturday afternoon by Lenoir-Rhyne (25-8, 9-3 SAC) by scores of 4-0 and 6-2.

GAME ONE: L-R 4, MHU 0

Mars Hill was blanked in game two of the weekend series, falling to L-R by a score of 4-0.

The Lions trailed 1-0 after the third and allowed two runs in the bottom of the sixth, highlighted by Cole Stanford's RBI double. In the bottom of the eighth, the Bears tacked on another insurance run with a solo home run off the bat of Mason Maxwell.

Maxwell, Zach Evans, and Bryce Stober led the Bears with two hits apiece. Jordan Lathe recorded three hits on the day to lead all players. Alex Naran, Zach Weaver, and Dawson Connell made up the other Lions' hits in the contest.

Andrew Patrick struck out 12 in 7.0 innings for the win.

GAME TWO: L-R 6, MHU 2

The Bears scored four unanswered in game three to complete the weekend sweep.

Tied at two entering the bottom of the fifth, the Bears took the lead off of Cole Laskowski's two-run home run. They tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to earn the 6-2 win.

Jordan Lathe opened the scoring in the top of the third with a RBI single that allowed Alex Naran to score. In the bottom of the fourth, a pair of solo home runs from Sal Carricato and Wade Cuda put the Bears up 2-1 entering the fifth.

The Lions tied the game at two off of Silas Isenhour's RBI single in the fifth, scoring Lathe.

Carricato led the Bears with three hits while Laskowski led the team with two RBI. Lathe posted three hits once again to lead the Lions. Naran added two while Isenhour and Chapel Matson recorded the other Mars Hill hits.

Jackson Reid struck out 10 in 5.0 innings for his fifth win of the season.

Mars Hill returns to the diamond when they host Emmanuel on Tuesday, March 28. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. at Henderson Field.