MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. --- The Lynn University baseball team scored three times in the bottom of the seventh to lead the Fighting Knights to an 8-7 win over Tusculum Saturday night at St. Thomas University.
Lynn (4-0) remains undefeated on the young season as the Knights rallied from a 7-5 deficit. LU's Deric LaMontagne and Leon Paulino came up with back-to-back RBI singles in the seventh to tie the game at 7-7. After a sacrifice bunt moved both runners up, Shawn Dougherty drove in the go-ahead run with a ground out.
Lynn's Noah Lucia, who came on in relief in the top of the fifth inning, blanked the Pioneers for the rest of the game as he worked around three hits and four walks, while posting three strikeouts for the victory.
Tusculum finished the game with 11 hits as Zane Keener went 3-for-4, while Zach Wilson posted a pair of hits for the Black & Orange.
Tusculum jumped out to an early 1-0 lead as Zach Wilson led off with a single and moved to third on Keener's base hit. Ben Scartz brought home Wilson with his sacrifice fly to right.
The Knights went through the batting order against TU starter Seth Willis in the bottom of the first as Lynn scored five times. The Knights used two hits and two TU errors to set up the scoring blitz. The big hit of the inning came on a three-run triple off the bat of Cole Fowler. Fowler would score on a throwing error on the play as LU led 5-1.
Tusculum answered with four runs in the top of the third as the Pioneers used four hits including RBI singles by Keener and Scartz and a two-run single from Patrick Usher to tie the game at 5-5.
TU took the lead in the fourth inning with a pair of runs. Kayl Ratliff led off with a walk, moved to second on a bunt and onto third after a wild pitch. Keener would break the tie with his RBI double and Scartz singled him home as the Pioneers led 7-5.
Willis would pitch six quality innings for the Pioneers as he allowed seven runs, with only three being earned. He worked around four hits, three walks and five strikeouts. Brice Anders suffered the loss in the relief as he pitched two innings, allowed one run, two hits, no walks and three strikeouts.
Tusculum will host Illinois Springfield next weekend for a four-game series at Pioneer Park with the home opener slated for Friday at 3 p.m.
