HICKORY, N.C. --- The Tusculum baseball team erupted for five runs in the eighth inning, while John-Austin Shepard pitched 2.2 shutout innings as the Pioneers defeated Lenoir-Rhyne 10-4 Friday night at Bears Field.
Tusculum (23-13, 13-9 SAC) moves into sole possession of third place in the South Atlantic Conference and have won four of its last six outings. The Pioneers and Bears (17-25, 9-13 SAC) will close out the weekend series with Saturday's 1 p.m. doubleheader.
TC amassed a dozen hits on the evening, including three hits each by Jalen Shuffler and Trey Drewery. The Pioneers also took advantage of four L-R fielding errors, resulting into five unearned runs.
Shepard, who relieved starter Taylor Rakes after the Bears tied the game at 4-4 in the seventh, limited L-R to a ninth inning single along with four strikeouts to improve his record to 3-1.
Tusculum sent nine batters to the plate in the eighth as the visitors posted four hits in the frame, including a run-scoring bunt single by Pat Holleran, and a two-run triple by Heath Comerford.
L-R's Ivan Vieitez hit the first of his two home runs on the night with his two-out solo blast in the first inning off of Rakes to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.
Tusculum tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the fourth on Trey Drewery's first homer of the season, a blast over the right field wall.
The Bears loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning with one out, but Rakes worked out of trouble with a pair of strikeouts to keep the game deadlocked.
Tusculum took the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth inning as Shuffler singled and scored on Tripper Crisson's second triple of the season. He would come into score on a Cade Stallings' sacrifice fly and a 3-1 TC lead. The Pioneers added another run in the seventh inning as Shuffler led off with a double and later scored on Comerford's fielder's choice.
Trailing 4-1, the Bears got the first batters aboard in the bottom of the seventh inning as Frank Poerio walked and moved to third on a Dalton Hall's 18th double of the season. Poerio scored on a Nate Martin ground out, before Vieitez connected on his sixth homer of the season, a two-run shot to tie the game at 4-4. Rakes walked the next batter as the Pioneers went to Shepard. He responded by getting a fly out and a strikeout to end the inning.
In the eighth, Drewery led off with a single and advance to third on a one-out single by Vinny Ferrara. Holleran laid down a perfect bunt to drive in Drewery with the eventual winning run. Shuffler would follow with a walk to load the bases. Christian Hicks was brought aboard to relieve Aaron Bentley. TC added two more runs on a L-R throwing error on Crisson's fielder's choice and Comerford capped the scoring with his third triple of the year, giving TC a five-run advantage.
Crisson and Ferrara also had multi-hit games for the Pioneers, while Shuffler scored three times and Comerford drove in three as Tusculum defeated Lenoir-Rhyne for a fifth straight time and fourth consecutive win at Bears Field.
Vieitez went 2-for-4 with three RBI for the Bears, while Hall also finished with two hits.
Rakes went 6.1 innings in the no-decision as he allowed four runs on six hits, four walks and fanned eighth giving him 190 career strikeouts, which are the third most in school history.
Bentley suffered the loss for the Bears, going two innings, allowed five runs, two earned, five hits and two walks.
- TC -
