GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Limestone University baseball team rallied with seven runs in the top of ninth inning including Cole Kirschner's game-winning grand slam as the Saints defeated Tusculum University Friday night at Pioneer Park in South Atlantic Conference action.

Limestone (10-11, 5-5 SAC) utilized 14 hits and took advantage of six Tusculum errors resulting in eight of the Saints 13 runs being unearned.

The Pioneers (5-14, 1-6 SAC) erased a 6-4 deficit with six runs in the bottom of the eighth with Avery Collins sparking the comeback with his go-ahead grand slam to right field to give TU a 10-6 lead heading into the ninth inning.

In the ninth with one out, five Saints got aboard in consecutive at-bats to get the rally started. Peter Adams legged out an infield single and Winston Parke blooped a base hit to right field. Ethan Bonocore reached on an error to load the bases. Adams Faucett singled to left to bring in Adams and Parke to make it a 10-8 contest.

Noah Vickers took over the mound for Cooper Emery and hit Ben Patridge with his first offering to load the bases. Vickers got the second out of the inning with a strikeout, but a wild pitch would bring home Bonocore from third to pull the Saints to within (10-9). A walk to Sion Barnett loaded the bases again and brought up Kirschner. Kirchner would send a deep fly ball to left field which cleared the wall and the bases for his second home run of the year as the Saints went up 13-10.

Limestone reliever Ben Catrambone would work around a two-out walk and posted a strikeout to end the game and secure his first save of 2025. Colby Humphries picked up the victory to go to 2-1 on the season Vickers (0-2) suffered the loss for the Pioneers and he pitched the final 0.2 innings for Tusculum.

Tusculum jumped out to a 2-0 lead scoring two times in the first thanks to a RBI double from Ty Smith and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Collins. The Saints answered with an unearned run in the top of the second as Barnett reached on a one-out single, advanced to third on an error and later scored on Tyler Hughesman's sacrifice bunt to trim the deficit to 2-1.

Tusculum added a run in its half of the second as Caleb Mulcahy led off with a walk, moved to second on a bunt and advanced to third on a fly out. Caleb Webster would come through with his two-out single to right to extend the lead to 3-1.

Limestone responded with two unearned runs in the fourth to take its first lead of the game at 4-3. TU answered with a run in the bottom of the fourth as Connor Jurek doubled and later scored on Webster's RBI double, his eighth of the year to tie the game at 4-4.

The Saints regained the lead with a run in the fifth and another in the sixth to go up 6-4.

In the bottom of the eighth, Connor Jurek got things started when he reached on an error. He moved to second on a failed pickoff play and later moved to third on Seth Sherman's infield single to place the tying runs on base. A base hit by Jurek, his fourth of the game, loaded the bases for Ryan Ortega. Ortega would fly out deep to centerfield to score Jurek from third and moved Sherman onto third with the tying run. A walk to Justin Millsaps loaded the bases again and chased reliever Conner Elliott out of the game. With Humphries on the bump, Smith drew a walk to bring home Sherman with the tying run (6-6).

Collins would step up and blast a shot to right field for his first career grand slam and his second home run of the week. He belted a two-run homer in the ninth inning in Tusculum's road win at UVA Wise last Tuesday.

Zach Greenberg led the hit-parade for Limestone as he went 3-for-6, Parke went 3-for-4 with three runs, while Faucett had two hits to go along with three RBI.

Webster finished the night going 4-for-6 with two RBI, while Ortega, Smith and Schmarder had two hits apiece.

Tusculum starter Luke Absher had another solid outing as he went five innings, allowed nine hits, five runs, two earned, one walk and four strikeouts in the no-decision.

Webster and Schmarder both extend their respective hitting streaks to 10 consecutive games. Schmarder has also reached base safely in his last 15 outings.

The two teams will wrap-up the series with Saturday's 1 p.m. doubleheader.