YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. – The Young Harris College baseball team ran their win streak to eight games as the Mountain Lions swept a doubleheader from Montreat College on a blustery Saturday (Feb. 25) afternoon at Zell B. Miller Field.
The Mountain Lions banged out 14 hits as they defeated the Cavaliers in the opener 6-3. Young Harris took scored three times in the fifth inning en route to a 4-2 decision in the nightcap.
Young Harris improved to 11-4 while the Cavaliers fell to 5-9. The two teams will wrap up their weekend series with a noon doubleheader Sunday (Feb. 26).
The Mountain Lions greeted Montreat starter Jeremy Freeman in the opener for three runs in the first inning. David Atwood, who went 3-for-4, drove in the first run on a sacrifice fly before Jack Morrow added a run-scoring single to right. Bowen Klosinski, who went 2-for-4, closed out the scoring with his RBI single to left.
After Montreat got an unearned run in the second, Young Harris scored single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to take a 6-1 lead. Sam Tarlton had a two-out RBI single in the fifth while Atwood drove in his second run of the game with his single just inside the left-field line an inning later. Tarlton stroked an RBI single up the middle in the seventh.
Montreat scored twice in the top of the eighth on Cody Reid's double to left field to cut the lead in half at 6-3, but that would be as close as they would get as reliever Oliver Pratt earned his first save of the season as he pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to preserve the win for starter Adam Moore (2-1), who allowed just four hits and struck out six in six innings.
The Mountain Lions took a 1-0 lead in the second game off Montreat starter Matt Tipton in the fourth inning on Zach Bricknell's triple to center field. Young Harris touched Tipton up for three unearned runs in the fifth as the Cavaliers committed two costly errors.
The Cavaliers got two runs back in the sixth to pull within 4-2, but Young Harris starter Josh Rudnik (2-0) pitched his second complete game of the campaign as he scattered four hits and struck out five.
