HARROGATE, Tenn. — Lincoln Memorial jumped out to an 11-1 lead but had to hold off a late Tusculum charge as the Railsplitters recorded a 14-9 win at Hennon Field in South Atlantic Conference baseball action.
LMU (19-8, 11-5 SAC) claims the series opening win and takes over sole possession of second place in the league standings.
Collin Goda went 3-for-4 with two doubles and five RBI including his three-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning to put the game out of reach.
Lincoln Memorial led 6-0 thanks to a five-run third inning which was sparked by a pair of two-run singles from Austin Epperson and Sam Mast as nine Railsplitters went to the plate.
Each team plated a run in the fourth inning before LMU tacked on four more in the fifth to extend the lead to 11-1.
But in the top of the sixth, the Pioneers (15-13, 10-6 SAC) sent 10 batters to the dish and scored five times, highlighted by Ben Scartz‘s RBI double and Murphy Flood‘s two-run single as TU trailed 11-6.
Tusculum trimmed the deficit to 11-9 in the top of the eighth as the Pioneers scored three times thanks to RBI singles from Flood, Patrick Usher and Omar Carreras.
TU looked to have all the momentum and got the first two outs to start the LMU eighth. But three straight walks loaded the bases and Goda cleared them with his double to left field to make it 14-9 game.
LMU reliever David Ellison worked around a two-out single and ended the game with a ground out.
LMU finished the game with 15 hits including 3-hit performances from Goda and Carson Boles. The Pioneers accounted for 14 hits on the afternoon which included a 3-for-3 outing by Carreras and two-hit games from Scartz, Flood and catcher Blaze McCauley.
LMU starting pitcher Christian Pencek (7-0) remained undefeated on the season as he went 5 1/3 innings, allowed nine hits, six runs, five earned, walked four and struck out six.
The teams will wrap-up the weekend series with a 2 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday at Hennon Field.
