HICKORY, N.C. --- Lenoir-Rhyne's Owen Blackledge belted a pair of home runs and scored six runs on the day in leading the 11th-ranked Bears to a pair of South Atlantic Conference wins over visiting Tusculum Saturday at Durham Field.
Lenoir-Rhyne (36-9, 20-7 SAC) won by scores of 12-9 and 9-3 to complete the weekend sweep over the Pioneers (17-28, 10-17 SAC). With the wins, the Bears move into sole possession of second place in the conference standings and are two games behind league-leader Catawba (32-12, 22-5 SAC).
Game 1: No. 11 Lenoir-Rhyne 12, Tusculum 9
LR's Joseph Mozingo went 2-for-5 with four RBI including a home run to lead the Bears to a 12-9 win in Saturday's first game. Blackledge reached base in four of his six plate appearances including two walks, a hit batter and a two-run homer. He also scored three times in the contest.
Lenoir-Rhyne scored four runs in the sixth inning and five more in the seventh, before having to hold off a furious Tusculum rally late in the contest.
LR starting pitcher William Girardi tossed six strong innings to pick up the victory and improve to 8-1 on the season. He allowed one run on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts. After Tusculum scored six times in the eighth to trim the deficit to three, LR closer Gavin Marley struck out the side in the ninth to post his sixth save this spring.
Lenoir-Rhyne totaled 14 hits in the contest led by Michael Logan's 3-for-5 performance.
Tusculum recorded a dozen hits as shortstop Ben Scartz had a career-game as he went 4-for-5 with six RBI which are tied for the seventh-most in program history. Included in that effort was Scartz's second home run this week and third of the season.
TU's Ty Smith added three hits with a double, while Caleb Webster went 2-for-3 with a double, three runs scored and two walks.
Tusculum third baseman Max Schmarder went 0-for-5 with a RBI but failed to reach base safely, ending a remarkable run of 36 consecutive games dating back to Feb. 7, 2025. His 36-game on-base streak is the seventh longest in school history which includes a TU-record 29-game hitting streak (Feb. 15-Apr. 12, 2025).
Game 2: No. 11 Lenoir-Rhyne 9, Tusculum 3
Lenoir-Rhyne's Cole Laskowski went 2-for-4 including his two-run home run in the fifth inning as the Bears won the night-cap 9-3.
Starting pitcher Kellen Gradisar picked up the victory to go to 8-2 on the year as he went five innings, allowed three runs on four hits, no walks and two strikeouts. The pitching quartet of Caleb Cockerham, Cole Bates, Spencer Floyd and Cole Bramhall blanked the Pioneers over the final two innings.
LR scored the first seven runs of the game thanks to a pair of three-run frames, one in the first and the other in the fourth. In the bottom of the first, nine Bears went to the plate including Blackledge's two-run homer. After scratching a run in the second and in the fourth, tallied three more to go up 7-0.
Meanwhile, Gradisar had a perfect game going in to the fifth inning. TU's Ryan Ortega broke it up with his lead-off single followed by Smith's second double of the day to put runners and second and third. Caleb Mulcahy later belted a two-run double and he would come into score on Jack Gagen's two-out RBI single as TU trailed 7-3.
In the bottom of the fifth, LR answered with two run as Blackledge drew a leadoff walk and Laskowski followed with a two-run homer to make it a 9-3 contest.
The Pioneers tried to rally in the sixth and the seventh as they loaded the bases in each, but were unable to get any closer than the final margin.
Tusculum returns home to close out the season with a four-game home-stand beginning with a rematch on Wednesday against ninth-ranked Young Harris at 4 p.m. Tusculum upset the Mountain Lions earlier this month with a 7-5 victory at Young Harris.
