Hickory, N.C. – The Lenoir-Rhyne Baseball Team (9-2) split a doubleheader with West Virginia Tech (1-1) Saturday afternoon at Bears Field.  The Golden Bears won the first game, 4-3, before the Bears took the nightcap by a 13-8 margin.

Game One – West Virginia Tech 4,
Lenoir-Rhyne 3
The Golden Bears broke a 3-3 tie when Jeinson Espinosa (Queens, N.Y.) came through with the game-winning, two-run single in the top of the ninth inning.

The Bears tied the score in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run single courtesy of junior third baseman David Newcomer (Archdale, N.C.).  Newcomer finished with two hits for Lenoir-Rhyne but junior Phillip Black (Shelby, N.C.) (0-1) was tagged with the loss.

For West Virginia Tech, Kyle Sager (San Diego, Calif.) (1-0) earned the win and Brandon Tucker (Blacksburg, Va.) pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up the save.

Box Score

Game Two – Lenoir-Rhyne 13, West Virginia Tech 8
(seven innings)
Lenoir-Rhyne rallied from a 5-1 deficit to salvage the split with West Virginia Tech.

The Bears reeled off 12 straight runs capped off by five-run fourth and sixth innings, respectively.  Lenoir-Rhyne freshman outfielder Justin Dean (Mauldin, S.C.) hit a bases-clearing double in the fourth inning and the Bears finished with 12 hits in the contest.

Junior Patrick LaGanke (Raleigh, N.C.) improved to 2-0 for the Bears after taking the victory while the Golden Bears' Chris Davidson (San Diego, Calif.) suffered the setback.  Espinosa added two hits and two runs batted in for West Virginia Tech.

Box Score

Lenoir-Rhyne hosts West Virginia Tech in the third and final game of the weekend series on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.