MARS HILL, N.C. – The Lenoir-Rhyne Baseball Team opened the weekend series with South Atlantic Conference foe Mars Hill with a doubleheader on Saturday and used their explosive bats to combine for 29 runs in two victories to clinch the series.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Finals: Lenoir-Rhyne 13, Mars Hill 8; Lenoir-Rhyne 16, Mars Hill 4
Records: Lenoir-Rhyne (19-21, 6-11 SAC), Mars Hill (16-21, 4-15 SAC)
Location: Henderson Field | Mars Hill, N.C.
STATS OF GAME ONE:
• LR exploded for 13 runs in the first three innings, including a nine-run third to put this one away and out of doubt early. The Bears slugged a pair of home runs, one off the bat of
Alex Reynolds and the other courtesy of
Hunter Jackson. Reynolds drove in five on the day with a 2-for-5 performance.
• The Bears had five of their seven batters to successfully record a hit get at least two in the game, and they were led by
Will Jones who finished 3-for-4 with two runs batted in and a run scored.
•
Alex Shirazi has been a reliable ace on the mound for LR this season and he continued that trend on Saturday afternoon. Shirazi working six complete innings while just giving up two runs on five hits and struck out a season-high 10 batters in the outing to earn his second win.
• Troy Hall for the Lions was roughed up by the Bears batters for 11 runs on eight hits in 2.1 innings of work for his fifth loss of the season.
• The Bears pounded out 13 hits in the game with five going for extra bases.
STATS OF GAME TWO:
• This game had a similar theme of explosive offense for the Bears as the road team put up crooked numbers in five of the seven innings played. In the top of the first,
Austin Reed crushed a 3-run shot to center and the Bears never looked back.
• Lenoir-Rhyne had two with perfect games at the plate as
E.J. Ranel (3-for-3) and
Clayton Jeffries (2-for-2). Jeffries drove in five runs in the contest as well as Reed who went 3-for-5.
•
Paul Hall continues to bring electric stuff to the mound in game two's of weekend series for the Bears. Hall earned his fifth win of the season as he went 6.0 innings, giving up four runs on six hits and 10 strikeouts.
• The first five batters in the LR lineup went a combined 11-for-15 with 11 runs scored and 15 of the 16 runs driven in.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:
• Hall's 10 strikeouts continues his elite strikeout streak of three 10-plus strikeout games in the past five and nine or more in all five of those games. He sits at third in the SAC in strikeouts this year.
• This marks the highest scoring total for a double-header all season and improves LR's road record to 12-8 away from Bears Field while enjoying a three-game winning streak.
• Ranel is on a five-game hit streak and combined to go 5-for-7 today, Jeffries is on a six-game hit streak and
Austin Reed extended his streak to four games.
UP NEXT:
LR will look to take the sweep tomorrow against the Mars Hill Lions with first pitch set for 1 p.m. at Henderson Field.
