Hickory, N.C. – The Tusculum Baseball Team (21-7, 7-3) opened a South Atlantic Conference series Friday night with an 8-1 victory over Lenoir-Rhyne (23-9, 5-5) at Bears Field.

The Pioneers' starting pitcher Placido Torres (North Brunswick, N.J.) improved to 6-0 after allowing just one run over eight innings of work in addition to eight strikeouts.  Torres entered the game with an 0.50 earned run average and now has a national-leading 100 strikeouts.

Tusculum's Creighton Wilke (Lincoln, Neb.) opened things in the top of the first inning with a solo home run while Zach Finchum (Greeneville, Tenn.) added a two-run single in the third inning as the Pioneers raced to an 8-0 advantage midway through the fourth frame.

Lenoir-Rhyne freshman catcher Zack Shoemaker (Colfax, N.C.) drove in a run in the bottom of the fourth inning but the Bears were kept off the board the rest of way.

Tusculum's Kevin Victoriano (Bronx, N.Y.) and Finchum both finished with three hits and two runs batted in as the Pioneers totaled 17 hits on the night and increased their winning streak to four games.  Tusculum is also 9-1 in its last 10 contests.

Lenoir-Rhyne sophomore Landon Whitson (Marion, N.C.) fell to 3-3 after suffering the loss.  However, junior Thomas St. Clair (Winston-Salem, N.C.) pitched well in relief for the Bears.  St. Clair held Tusculum scoreless in the final five innings while striking out six batters.

Lenoir-Rhyne and Tusculum wrap up the South Atlantic Conference weekend series with a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Bears Field beginning at 1:00 p.m.