BELMONT, N.C. - On a beautiful afternoon on the campus of Belmont Abbey College, the Young Harris College Mountain Lions rallied from a two-run deficit late in the game, and Tyler Isbell (4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 K) shutout the Crusaders over the last four frames to beat Belmont Abbey (4-3), 8-6 in 11 innings.
The victory is the first win of the season for Young Harris (1-3), and it marks the first-ever win for the Mountain Lion Baseball team as a four-year institution.
Young Harris College plated the first runs of the game in the top of the second inning when Evan Carr (2 2B, 2 R, 1 RBI) drove in Adam Moore (1 H, 1 R, 1RBI) with a two-out double. Zach Bricknell (2 H, 1 R, 1 RBI) followed with a single to right field to put the Mountain Lions up 2-0.
The Crusaders would answer off Young Harris starting pitcher Travis Donahoo (4IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 SO) in the bottom of the third to even the score at 2-2. Young Harris answered with two more runs off the bats of Jack Morrow (1 H, 1 RBI) and Moore in the fourth inning to put the Mountain Lions ahead 4-2.
The score would hold until the bottom of the fifth, when the Crusaders plated three runs off Donahoo and reliever Brice Merritt (2 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 K) to gain a 5-4 lead. The Crusaders would add another run in the seventh when catcher Kyle Buchanan launched a Merritt curveball over the left field fence to make the score 6-4 in favor of the Crusaders. Reliever Nick Boutwell (1 IP, 0 R) came on to pitch for Merritt in the seventh inning with no outs and a Crusader runner on second base and was able to retire all three batters he faced to leave him stranded in scoring position.
The Mountain Lions would make their comeback in the top of the eighth, when Carr led off with a double down the left field line and scored on misplayed ball by the Crusader first baseman off the bat of Bricknell. Bricknell would score on a Tommy Ferguson (2 H, 1 R, 1 RBI) groundball to even the score at 6-6.
With the score tied, Isbell (1-0) would enter the game and retire Crusader hitter after Crusader hitter for three straight frames while the Mountain Lion bats went cold. With the score still tied 6-6 entering the 11th inning, second-baseman Mike Medori led off with an infield single to shortstop. Two pitches later, as Medori was attempting to steal second base, an errant throw by the Belmont Abbey catcher was mishandled at second base and resulted in Medori moving to third base on the error. One pitch later, Ferguson drove him in with an RBI single to center field. Following a single by Josh Rudnik (1 H, 1 R), David Atwood (2 H, 1 R, 1 RBI) drove in Ferguson on a sacrifice bunt to bring the score to 8-6 in favor of the Mountain Lions entering the bottom of the 11th inning.
With Isbell still on the mound for Young Harris in the bottom of the 11th, Belmont Abbey rallied as their leadoff hitter singled to right, and moved to second when the next batter was hit by a pitch. After a pass ball, the Crusaders found themselves with the tying run on second base and no outs. Isbell calmly struck out the next Crusader hitter on a devastating curveball for the first out of the inning. After another hit by pitch to load the bases, Isbell got Crusader clean-up hitter Joey Frabasile to ground into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play, securing the first victory for the Young Harris Mountain Lions as a four-year institution in the process.
“It was exciting to see the guys enjoy their first victory after all their hard work in unfavorable weather conditions throughout the entire preseason,” head coach Rick Robinson said. “We continually stress the importance of pitching and defense, both Nick and Tyler did an outstanding job holding them scoreless for five innings to give us an opportunity to take the lead and secure the win.”
The Mountain Lions will take on the Crusaders in a doubleheader tomorrow at Abbey Field beginning at noon EST. For Live Stats of the game, visit http://abbeyathletics.athleticsite.net/livestats/bb/xlive.htm
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