Hickory, N.C. – The Mars Hill Baseball Team (24-19, 10-9) pulled out a 6-5 victory over Lenoir-Rhyne (21-20, 6-13) Friday evening in a South Atlantic Conference game at Bears Field.

The Lions' Matt Honeycutt (China Grove, N.C.) hit a two-run double and Hunter Merrill (Pittsford, N.Y.) broke a three-all tie with the game-winning RBI triple in the seventh inning.

Lenoir-Rhyne sophomore first baseman Alex Reynolds (Kings Mountain, N.C.) hit a two-run home run and junior shortstop Tripp Hamrick (Ellenboro, N.C.) drove in two runs for the Bears in the setback.

For Mars Hill, Tom Mastrodonato (Rochester, N.Y.) pitched the final four innings and improved to 3-1 on the year after taking the win.  Mastrodonato struck out six while Shomarii Thomas (Miami Gardens, Fla.) and Gray McCurry (Burnsville, N.C.) hit solo home runs for the Lions in the victory.

Lenoir-Rhyne senior Thomas St. Clair (Winston-Salem, N.C.) fell to 9-3 on the year after taking the loss despite striking out 11 batters to increase his national lead in strikeouts to 110.

The two teams will wrap up the league weekend series with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m., as part of the Bears Senior Day.