GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Joshua Lanham pitched six strong innings to move to 5-0 on the season in leading nationally-ranked Lenoir-Rhyne to an 8-1 South Atlantic Conference win at Tusculum Sunday afternoon at Pioneer Park.
The Bears (23-2, 5-1 SAC) are ranked 20th in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Division II Coaches Poll and 11th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America Division II Media Poll.
Lenoir-Rhyne takes the weekend series over the Pioneers (10-11, 2-7 SAC) two games to one. It marks the Bears second ever SAC series win in Greeneville and its first at Tusculum since 2001. TU had won eight straight home series with Lenoir-Rhyne.
L-R pitching limited Tusculum to six hits on the afternoon while recording 11 strikeouts. Lanham allowed one unearned run on five hits, three walks and five strikeouts in his 103-pitch performance.
The Bears spotted their pitching ace to a 6-0 lead with a run in the first inning, three in the second and two tallies in the third.
L-R's Wayne Cuda led off the game with his SAC-leading 10th home run of the season for a 1-0 lead.
The Bears led off the second with back-to-back singles. Nick Clarno reached on a single, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Anthony Porrino's RBI hit. Brayden Collett made it a 4-0 lead with his two-run blast down the left field line, his first homer of his collegiate career.
Lenoir-Rhyne took advantage of a two-out error in the third as David Bell posted a two-run single to extend the lead to 6-0.
Tusculum plated its only run in the game in the fourth inning as Jaden Steagall got aboard with his two-out single against Lanham. Blaze McCauley lined a single to left field which got away from the L-R outfielder allowing Steagall to score all the way from first base.
Tusculum got a runner aboard in each of its last five at-bats, but the L-R trio of Lanham, Joey Cobb and Braden Houston kept the Pioneers off the scoreboard for the final five frames.
TU's Tyler Harmon made his first pitching appearance in over a month as the senior allowed two unearned runs on one hit, two walks and fanned a pair in his inning of work.
Drew Sliwinski had a solid relief outing as he went 5.1 innings, allowed two runs, one earned, three hits, two walks and four strikeouts. TU senior Jonathan Nelson retired all three batters he would face in the ninth in his 10-pitch effort.
Tusculum pitching limited the highly touted L-R offense to single-digit hits in all three games this weekend. Entering the weekend set, Lenoir-Rhyne was averaging over a dozen hits per game, but were held to seven hits each in Friday's doubleheader and eight hits in the series finale.
TU's Wes Reynolds was the only player on the day to record multiple hits as he went 2-for-4 at the plate. Steagall reached base in all four of his plate appearances and he posted a hit and walked three times.
Tusculum begins an eight-game road swing on Tuesday when the Pioneers take on nationally-ranked Young Harris for a second time this season. The Mountain Lions defeated the Pioneers 10-1 last month in Greeneville.
