GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Tusculum University scored 14 runs on 14 hits to win Saturday's opener as the Pioneers split a South Atlantic Conference doubleheader with visiting Wingate University.
Tusculum won the first game 14-8 as the Pioneers scored in every seven of its eight times to the plate. Wingate rebounded and led wire-to-wire in the series finale with a 10-6 victory for the visitors.
With Saturday's victory, Tusculum (20-14, 14-7 SAC) wins the weekend series two games to one to move into a tie with the Bulldogs (20-13, 12-6 SAC) for second place in the league standings.
The two teams combined for nine home runs on the day which featured wind gusts blowing out to left field up to 30 miles per hour. Wingate pounded out six home runs as a team on the afternoon including four in the first game, while Tusculum belted all three of its home runs in series clincher.
Game 1: Tusculum 14, Wingate 8
Jayden Singleton went 3-for-5 with three RBI including a double and a home run to lead Tusculum to a 14-8 win over Wingate in Saturday's opening contest.
Of Tusculum's 14 hits, six went for extra bases including two doubles, a triple and three home runs. Wingate was just a potent at the plate as the Bulldogs tallied a dozen hits including two doubles and four home runs including two round-trippers by Breon Ishamel.
The Pioneers bolted out to a 6-1 lead scoring three runs each in the first two innings. In the first inning, Zane Keener got things started with a triple down the right field line and scored on Zach Wilson's sacrifice fly. Later in the inning, Omar Carreras drew a walk and Jake Absher followed with a two-run homer to left field as TU went up 3-0.
The Bulldogs responded in the second as Ishmael led off with a solo homer to center field. TU made it 6-1 scoring three unearned runs in the bottom of the inning thanks to a RBI single by Wilson and a two-run base hit off the bat of Carreras.
Wingate scored three of its own in the top of third on Brett Adams' two-out, three-run homer that cleared the left field wall to trim the deficit to 6-4.
TU got two of those runs back in the fourth on Ben Scartz's two-run homer, his first in a Pioneer uniform as the lead swelled to 8-4.
Back came Bulldogs using a three-run inning in the fifth as Isaiah Williams-Rhem led off with a double and scored on a Cam Harris' single. Sean Barnett followed with a two-run homer to left to cut the TU lead to 8-7 and exit starting pitcher Brady Salyards. Reliever Cole Forcellina had the first two batters reach, but he retired the next three batters to preserve the TU lead.
Singleton led off the fifth with a solo home run and the Pioneers scored three more times in the sixth with the clutch hit coming on Singleton's two-run single as Tusculum pushed the advantage to 12-7.
Ishmael homered for a second time, this coming on a solo blast to start the seventh. But TU got a run in the seventh and another in the eighth to put some distance between themselves and Wingate.
Forcellina (2-0) picked up the victory as he went three innings, allowed one run, four hits, zero walks and three strikeouts. TU's Jonathan Nelson pitched well as he tossed two shutout innings with a pair of strikeouts.
Keener finished the game going 3-for-4 and scored three times, giving him 145 for his career which moves him into a tie for sixth all-time in program history.
Game 2: Wingate 10, Tusculum 6
Wingate jumped out to a 4-0 lead and explode for five runs in the fourth as the Bulldogs salvaged a 10-6 win in the night-cap.
Williams-Rhem had the hot bat again as he went 2-for-3 with a triple and a three-run homer in the second frame.
The five-run fourth frame including freshman Brandon Hart's first collegiate home run to start the inning, while Ricky Clark added a two-run single to extend Wingate's lead to 9-2. The Pioneers plated two runs each in the fourth and fifth innings to cut the deficit to 9-6. But an important insurance run in the sixth on Ismael's RBI single capped the scoring on the day.
Cal Riehl (2-0) picked up the victory, while Chad Harvey pitched brilliantly as he blanked the Pioneers over the final two innings.
Both teams posted nine hits apiece as the Pioneers committed two errors while Wingate committed one fielding miscue.
Ishmael went 2-for-2 with two walks and two RBI while Hart scored two times in the game.
Samuelson led the Pioneers at the plate with his 3-for-4 performance, while Avery Collins had a 2-for-3 game with two RBI and a walk.
The Pioneers win their fourth straight SAC series and six in its first seven league weekend sets.
Tusculum will wrap-up its five-game home-stand this Wednesday at 4 p.m. against nationally-ranked Young Harris College. The Mountain Lions edged Tusculum 12-11 in an extra-inning thriller in last month's meeting.
