Hickory, N.C.-- In the battle of the two unbeatens in the SAC Tournament opening round, the Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters remained unblemished with a 10-5 win over the Bears. In the fourth game of the day at Bears Field, LMU used a seven-run 5th inning to move on to Saturday's championship game of the pod. Lora Beth Wood and Talon LaClair hit home runs in the losing effort.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Game Final: Lincoln Memorial 10, No. 18 Lenoir-Rhyne 5 ,
Records: Lincoln Memorial (33-22), No. 18 Lenoir-Rhyne (34-11),
Game Location: Bears Field I Hickory, N.C.
STATS AND INFO:
- Bears went 1-1 on the day and will face Catawba in an elimination game on Saturday. The winner will have to beat LMU twice to move on to the championship round.
- Game featured two rain delays with the first one twelve minutes then a sixty-eight minute delay in the 4th inning.
- LR is now 63-43 all-time in the SAC Tournment.
GAME INFO:
- Bears jumped out to a 1-0 lead with Wood's solo home run in the bottom of the 1st
- Back to back extra base hits for LMU in the top of 2nd gave the Railsplitters a 3-1 lead.
- After the second rain delay, the Bears tied it up with a pair of runs in the bottom of the 4th. RBIs by Blume and Rackard made it a new ball game at three each.
- Lincoln Memorial then exploded for seven runs in the top of the 5th as LMU hit for the cycle in the inning with two singles, two doubles, a triple and a three-run homerun.
- LaClair did hit a two-run home run in the 7th but the deficit was too much to overcome as LMU takes the 10-5 win.
- Morgan Beeler (21-4) suffered the loss in the circle, Beeler went 4 1/3 innings allowed five runs (two earned) while striking out a pair.
- Brooklin Heavner was first in relief but only threw 1/3 of a inning before Faith Carrigan finished the game going 2 1/3 innings allow two runs on just two hits.
- Bears were held to six hits and LaClair was the only Bears with multi-hit game.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:
- Mardigian saw her 13 game hitting streak snap with a 0-4 in the second game.
- LaClair did extend her hitting streak to eight games.
- This was the first night came the Bears have loss since 2015, the Bears are now 12-1 in night games since the 2015 season.
UP NEXT: Bears will face Catawba at 12:00 PM with the winner facing Lincoln Memorial at 2:30. Bears will need to win both games tomorrow to force a winner take all game on Sunday.