FOREST CITY, N.C. --- Sixth-seeded Lincoln Memorial eliminated No. 5 seed Tusculum with a 5-1 victory on Saturday afternoon in the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Baseball Tournament at McNair Field.
With the win, the Railsplitters (26-23) advance to face third-seeded Catawba, the only undefeated team in the tournament. Due to inclement weather in Forest City, that game will be played on Sunday at a time, yet to be determined. Tusculum falls to 30-18 on the season.
Lincoln Memorial starting hurler Austin Johnson (Versailles, Ky.) gave the Railsplitters a solid outing as he went the distance to earn the win. Johnson (3-3) gave up one run and seven hits and fanned five on the day.
Tusculum starter Craig Goodman (Clearwater, Fla.) took the loss to fall to 4-2 on the season. Goodman surrendered one earned run and eight hits and fanned seven in 6 1/3 innings of work.
The Railsplitters collected eight hits, including a 3-for-4 effort from leadoff man Cody Baker (Knoxville, Tenn.). Cody Pack (Andersonville, Tenn.) added a RBI double in the win.
The Pioneers tallied seven hits, as senior Nate Grabowski (Pennellville, N.Y.) led the way with a pair of doubles.
The Railsplitters got off to a strong start in the first. Baker led off the inning with a single. Juan Alvarez (Carolina, PR) followed with a single to right, and Baker scored on a Pioneer error. Alvarez later scored on a Garrett Copeland (Knoxville, Tenn.) fielder's choice to give Lincoln Memorial a 2-0 lead.
Lincoln Memorial tallied three more runs in the third. Pack delivered a RBI double in the inning and later scored on an error, while Nick Langley (Blaine, Tenn.) produced a run-scoring single to give the Railsplitters a 5-0 lead.
The Pioneers got on the board in the fourth, as Grabowski ripped a double to left center to lead off the inning. After a Sean Finucane (Cortland, N.Y.) single, Sean Cotton (Mooresville, N.C.) drove home Grabowski with a sacrifice fly to right to cut Lincoln Memorial's lead to 5-1.
But Johnson allowed just three hits the rest of the way to seal the win.
"I thought we were kind of in this situation again where we were not swinging the bats very well," said TC head coach Doug Jones. "If you would have told me that we would have came in and played that poorly offensively over a three-game stretch, that's just hard to win when you do that. You have to tip your hat to Lincoln Memorial. Those kids went out there and did a very good job. They've done that throughout the whole tournament. I'm proud of our pitching staff. I thought they gave us an opportunity to win the game. It's just for whatever reason we didn't get it done offensively."
Tusculum will close out the season next weekend as the Pioneers travel to nationally-ranked Mt. Olive College for a three-game series.
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