Baseball Sweeps Brevard
Brevard, N.C. - The Lions swept a doubleheader from Brevard Saturday afternoon with 12-5 and 9-5 victories at Gil Coan Field. MHC improved to 14-18 overall and 7-8 in the SAC. BC fell to 11-15 on the season and 3-11 in the league.
Kramer Clark and Ron Patterson had five hits apiece on the day for Brevard and Derek Ham and Brett Brinson had three-hit games, but it was not enough as the Tornados saw their two game winning streak end. Adam Lewis had five RBI on the afternoon to pace the Mars Hill offense, while Greg Smith (2-2) and Tony Hearrell (2-2) picked up the victories for the Lions on the mound.
Game One: Mars Hill 12, Brevard 5
A seven-run eighth inning broke a 5-5 tie as the Michael Brittian
and Coty Pate hit back-to-back home runs to give the Lions the
victory in the first game of the doubleheader.
The Lions and Tornados traded runs in the first as Lewis singled up
the middle, scoring Dalton Hardee from second base for Mars Hill,
while Zach Merriken drove in Patterson with a base hit to
centerfield to tie the game after one.
The Lions plated three in the second and one in the third to take a 5-1 lead. Mars Hill saw two runners score on passed balls during the run as Mars Hill took control of the game early for starter Tyler Stephenson.
After several scoreless innings, the Tornados knotted the game back up in the bottom of the sixth. Clark scored on Kameron Armacost's one-out base hit to centerfield and Armacost came in on Derek Ham's single to cut the lead to 5-3. Randy O'Dell followed with a double in the right center gap to score Patterson and after Stephenson loaded the bases, Ethan Pressley was nicked by a pitch to bring home Ham to tie the game up at 5.
In the eighth, the Lions chased two BC relievers as they sent 10 batters to the plate with the majority of the damage in the inning coming off the bat of Brittian's three-run shot to right field. Lewis added a two RBI single in the inning and Pate greeted BC reliever Alex Litaker with a home run to the left of the scoreboard.
The Tornados were unable to mount a comeback in falling in the first game of the doubleheader, evening the weekend series.
Game Two: Mars Hill 9, Brevard 5
A five-run inning in the fourth on the backs of two
Brevard errors allowed Mars Hill to withstand a furious BC comeback
in the final innings as the Tornados dropped the second game to the
Lions.
Mars Hill plated runs in both the first and the third innings as Brittian drove in Smith with a base hit in the first and Lewis drove in Smith in the third, before the Lions exploded for five runs in the third to stake MHC starter Greg Smith to the 7-0 lead.
The Lions added two more runs in the fifth as Hardee's sacrifice fly brought in two as the throw trickled away from the BC catcher to put Mars Hill up 9-0 before the Tornados answered in the bottom half of the inning.
Patterson and Clark hit back-to-back one out triples to right
centerfield and O'Dell followed with a base hit through the left
side of the infield to put Brevard on the board.
The Tornados added another run in the sixth as Christopoulos drove
a two-out double to left center, scoring Brinson, setting the stage
for the bottom of the seventh.
Brevard sent seven batters to the plate with Clark and O'Dell
crossing to score to cut the lead to 9-5, but Smith retired the
final BC hitter on a grounder in the infield to end the game.
MHC will play at King College on March 22. First pitch is set
for 3 p.m.
