HICKORY, N.C. - The Lenoir-Rhyne Baseball Team finished a three-game weekend sweep of Mars Hill with a pair of victories on Saturday afternoon at Durham Field. LR got strong starts from Andrew Patrick and Jackson Reid to earn a pair of four-run victories over the Lions. 

INSIDE THE MATCHUP 
Final Game One: Lenoir-Rhyne 4, Mars Hill 0
Final Game Two: Lenoir-Rhyne 6, Mars Hill 2
Records: Lenoir-Rhyne (25-8, 9-3 SAC), Mars Hill (7-26, 4-11 SAC)
Location: Hickory, N.C. | Durham Field

STATS OF GAME ONE:

• Patrick absolutely dominated the Mars Hill lineup with his best start of the season. Patrick tossed seven scoreless innings with five hits allowed and a tied a career-high with 12 strikeouts. Patrick improved to 3-1 on the season. 
• Patrick allowed three hits in the first inning but settled down to put up a zero and then allowed just two hits in his final six innings of work.
• Gavin Marley came on to earn a two inning save, his second save of the season. Marley struck out four of the eight batters he faced. 
• Ethan Smith, who got his second start of the season in RF, scored the first run of the game on a wild pitch in the bottom of the third.
• It remained 1-0 until LR plated a pair in the sixth as both runs came courtesy of two-out hits. Zach Evans reached on a single to short and advanced to second on a throwing error. Bryce Stober then laced an RBI single to right and then stole second and third base. Cole Stanford made the most of his pinch hitting appearance with an RBI double down the RF line to make it 3-0.
• Mason Maxwell's third bomb of the season added insurance in the bottom of the eighth. Maxwell went 2-for-4 as did Evans and Stober.
• LR stole five bases in the game.  

STATS OF GAME TWO:

• Jackson Reid would dominate the mound in game two but was looking at an early deficit in the third inning. An infield single gave Mars Hill the first run of the game.
• LR would answer with a pair of solo shots in the bottom of the fourth with the first coming by Sal Carricato and the second coming off the bat of Wade Cuda.
• A two-out rally by the visitors would even the score in the fourth. A two-out single and walk led to an RBI base knock from Silas Isenhour to make it 2-2.
• LR would make sure to get Reid the win with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth. Cole Laskowski stroked a 2-run homer to left field for his fifth career bomb.
• Reid would leave after five and 94 pitches thrown and was charged with two earned runs in five innings while piling up 10 strikeouts. 
• Spencer Floyd and Braden Houston would finish out the game with scoreless innings and striking out five of the seven batters faced. 
• Carricato went 3-for-3 with his HR and had eight hits over the three-game series.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Blake Bean saw his 15 game hitting streak come to an end in game two of the doubleheader. It was the longest hitting streak of the season for an LR player.
• Carricato has seven multi-hit games on the year and two five-hit games. 
• With three more long balls today, LR built on its SAC-leading total of 50 in 33 games. The next closest team in total HR is UVA Wise with 31 in 30 games.
• LR walked Zach Weaver three times in game two with one being intentional. Weaver came in to the game second in the league with 11 HR. 
• The LR bullpen tossed four innings today and struck out nine batters. In total, the LR pitching staff as a whole struck out 29 Mars Hill hitters.
• This was the culmination of an eight game home stand for the Bears which saw them go 5-3.

UP NEXT: The Lenoir-Rhyne Baseball Team will return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Limestone for a 6 p.m. first pitch.