HICKORY, NC - The Lenoir-Rhyne Baseball team advanced to Sunday's 1:00 p.m. game with an 8-2 win over Wingate on Saturday afternoon. Throwing possibly his best game of the season was
Kellen Gradisar (10-2), who allowed no runs and struck out three in 7.2 innings of work.
The Bears scored a solo run in the first, three in the fifth, and four in the ninth to pick up the win.
Alex Khan hit a two-run homer in the fifth, while
Owen Blackledge went yard with a three-run shot in the top of the ninth.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: (2) Lenoir-Rhyne 8, (6) Wingate 2
Records: Lenoir-Rhyne (42-10), Wingate (26-25)
Location: Hickory, NC | Durham Field
STORY OF THE GAME
- The Bears struck first, as Mackenzie Wainwright scored on a Sal Carricato groundout.
- Lenoir-Rhyne opened up the game with three-runs in the fifth.
- Alex Khan hit a two-run home run, and Cole Laskowski hit an RBI triple to score Owen Blackledge.
- Kellen Gradisar didn't see more than three batters in an inning until the fifth, when he saw four.
- Joseph Mozingo opened up the ninth inning scoring with an RBI single to score Michael Logan.
- With Mozingo and Wainwright on base, Blackledge launched his 11th home run of the year to make it 8-0 Bears.
- Wingate scored two runs late but it was too little, too late as LR took this one 8-2.
STATS OF THE GAME
- Kellen Gradisar (10-2) finished with a line of 7.2 IP, 5 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, and 3 strikeouts. He managed to throw just 83 pitches.
- Owen Blackledge was 2-for-4 with three RBI's and two runs.
- Cole Laskowski was the only other Bear with a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 with an RBI.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:
- The Bears are now 3-1 against the Bulldogs this year.
- Lenoir-Rhyne now has 111 home runs on the season.
UP NEXT: The Bears will face the winner of tonight's losers bracket game tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. If the Bears win they will advance to next weekend's SAC Championship best-of-three series in Ashboro. Should LR lose, they will play in a winner-take-all game at 5:00 p.m.