YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. – Young Harris College overcame a five-run deficit and then had to hold on for an 11-10 college baseball victory over North Greenville University Tuesday (Feb. 28) afternoon at Zell B. Miller Field.
The Mountain Lions improved to 14-4 as they won their 11th consecutive game. The Crusaders fell to 10-4. Young Harris returns to action Saturday (March 3) when they start a three-game series against Saint Leo University in Saint Leo, Fla. First pitch for the opener is set for 1 p.m.
North Greenville opened up a 5-0 lead after its first two at bats. The Crusaders scored an unearned run in the first and then scored four times in the second. Allen Staton hit the first of five home runs – as many as the Crusaders had hit all season - for North Greenville with a two-run homer to left. Markus Duckworth and Anthony Foulk added back-to-back homers in the inning.
Young Harris, which scored in every inning but the first and eighth, started its comeback in the bottom of the second as Sam Tarlton, who drove in three runs, drew a bases-loaded walk, one of eight free passes issued by the five pitchers used by the Crusaders. The Mountain Lions added a run in the third on a leadoff homer to left by Trey Rogers and tied the game at 5 with three more runs in the fourth. Tarlton had a sacrifice fly before David Atwood, who also drove in three runs, added a two-run single to left.
"The guys did a great job battling even after we got down five runs," said Young Harris head coach Rick Robinson. "(Oliver) Pratt did a good job stopping their bats for four innings."
The Mountain Lions took the lead for good with three runs off North Greenville reliever Tripp Owenby (0-1) in the fifth. Tarlton drew his second bases-loaded walk of the game to give Young Harris a 6-5 lead. The Mountain Lions added a run on a wild pitch before Zeke Gribble added a sacrifice fly.
Young Harris added another run in sixth on a single to center by Jack Morrow, before the Crusaders got two runs back in the seventh on RBI hits by Derek Fulmer and Staton to put within 9-7. The Mountain Lions got the two runs back in their half of the seventh on an Atwood run-scoring single to right and a sacrifice fly by Zach Bricknell to push the lead back to 11-7.
North Greenville added two runs in the eighth on a Fulmer's homer to right center and another run in the ninth on pinch-hitter John Reinholz's leadoff homer to pull within a run at 11-10, but Justin Cooper earned his second save of the season as he shut the Crusaders down the rest of the inning.
Young Harris reliever Oliver Pratt (3-1) allowed just two hits and struck out five in 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
