Florence, SC-- Lenoir-Rhyne Baseball opened their 2020 season, and their first year under Head Coach
Chris Ramirez, with a 3-0 win on Saturday afternoon.
Alex Shirazi and
Joshua Lanham combined to allow only two hits and strike out 16.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: Lenoir-Rhyne 3, Southern Wesleyan 0
Records: Lenoir-Rhyne (1-0), Southern Wesleyan (0-1)
Location: Sparrow Stadium | Florence, S.C.
STATS OF GAME:
- Shirazi started for the Bears and traded zeroes with Warriors starter Rett Wages through five innings. Both teams only had a single hit in the first five innings.
- The Bears finally broke through in the Bottom of the 6th, with two out Damian Pierce hit his first homerun for the Bears. The homer gave the Bears a 1-0 lead, which is all the runs the Bears needed today.
- Freshman Lanham relieved Shirazi in the 6th inning and only allowed a single to lead off the 9th while striking out 8 hitters to record his first collegiate win.
- LR did have chances earlier in the game but went 0-3 with runners on third with less then 2 outs.
- The Bears did add two runs in the bottom of the 7th thanks to a Bryce Stober RBI single and three errors by the Warriors.
- Junior Will Jones started the rally in the 7th with a single to centerfield. Going back to last year, Jones has had at least one hit in 6 out of his last 7 games for the Bears.
- All three of the Bears runs today were with two outs.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:
- Despite only playing one time in program history before today, these two programs will play each other twice in the next 11 days. Lenoir-Rhyne will make the trip to Central, SC to play Southern Wesleyan on February 11.
- In the previous meeting here in Florence in 2018, the Bears used three pitchers and only allowed four hits to beat Southern Wesleyan 4-0.
- With the win today, The Bears are now 5-1 in the last six opening day games. The only loss was last year to Rollins. However, the Bears rebounded and beat Rollins the next day.
- The Bears have not opened their season at home since 2014, when they hosted North Greenville to open the year.
- Today was Ramirez's first win with the Bears and his 200th in his career.
- Rett Wages had the rare four strikeout inning. Wages struck out four Bears in the third inning thanks to a throwing error by the Warriors after a drop third strike.
UP NEXT: The Bears will play host Francis Marion at 11 am tomorrow morning then play Mars Hill at 2 PM.