WINGATE, N.C. - The Lenoir-Rhye baseball team dropped a 9-5 game to Wingate in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament on Saturday.
This moves the Bears to the losers bracket where they will face the winner of Newberry and Carson-Newman tomorrow at noon.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: (2) Wingate 9, (3) Lenoir-Rhyne 5
Records: Wingate (36-16), Lenoir-Rhyne (36-12-1)
Location: Wingate, N.C. | Ron Christopher Field
STORY OF GAME:
- Wingate went up 3-0 before Drew Beard got one back with a solo home run in the fourth.
- The Bulldogs scored three in the fifth to make it 7-1 after five.
- With the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, Matt Procopio hit a big two-out single to make it a 7-3 ballgame.
- Thanks to an error on the next at bat, Seth Christmas scored on the next at bat to cut the lead to three.
- Andrew Stilinger hit an RBI single in the ninth but it was too little, too late.
STATS OF GAME:
- Hugo Tafoya (5-3) took the loss, striking out three and allowing four runs in 3.1 innings.
- Matt Procpio was 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored.
- Nathan Kidder, Andrew Stillinger, and Conor Linkfield all had two hits.
- The Bears did not record an error in the game. Wingate committed four.
- The Bulldogs out hit the Bears 12-9.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:
- The Bears and Bulldogs have faced each other in SAC Tournament action in three of the last five years.
- Mackenzie Wainwright has now reached base in 21 straight games while Nathan Kidder has a 14 game hit streak.
UP NEXT: Lenoir-Rhyne will face off against the winner of the Newberry/Carson-Newman game tomorrow at noon. Wingate will play the winner of that game tomorrow afternoon for a trip to Asheboro and the SAC Championship series.
