YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. – The Young Harris College baseball team picked up two wins Saturday (March 10) at the Chad Gassman Classic being played at Zell B. Miller Field.
The Mountain Lions took the opener against Waldorf College 5-3 before overcoming a nine-run deficit to win the nightcap against Indiana (Pa.) University 21-18 in 11 innings.
Young Harris improved to 17-6 and will next play Sunday (March 10) when they host Indiana (Pa.) in a 3:30 p.m. contest.
In the nightcap, the Crimson Hawks used an eight-run first inning and led by as many as nine runs at 15-6 before the Mountain Lions clawed back in the contest. The big inning for Young Harris was a seven-run eighth inning that pulled the Mountain Lions within a run at 17-16. In the pivotal inning, the Mountain Lions got just two hits, took advantage of a catcher's interference call and five walks.
The Mountain Lions sent the game into extra innings with Brady McCarter's RBI double to right-center that scored pinch runner Trevor Spradlin from second base.
Indiana (Pa.) retook the lead 18-17 in the top of the 10th on a two-out RBI single up the middle by John Beatty; however, Young Harris worked on some two-out magic of its own as Spencer Thomas stroked a RBI double to left-center field.
After a scoreless top of the 11th inning by reliever James Mills (1-0), Mills started the winning rally by being hit by a pitch by IUP reliever Ben Weimer (0-2). Dom Wyshinski sacrificed Mills to second before Zeke Gribble reached on a single. Josh Rudnik then smashed an 0-2 offering off the scoreboard in right-center field for his first home run of the season for the game-winning three-run homer.
The game, which was a minute shy of four hours, had a little bit of everything as the teams combined for 39 runs, 39 hits (14 for extra bases), 29 runners left on base, 21 walks and nine errors.
With the opener tied at 1, the Mountain Lions scored three times in the bottom of the sixth off Warrior starter Shaun McGuire (2-2) to take a 4-1 lead against Waldorf. Jack Morrow hit the first pitch of the inning over the center field wall for his team-leading seventh homer of the season. Tom Valichka added a run-scoring single to right and Mike Medori added a RBI double to left-center.
The Warriors got two runs back in the seventh on run-scoring singles by Spenser Popinga and Jake Bews. Young Harris added an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning to take a 5-3 lead on Adam Moore's double inside the left-field line.
Reliever Oliver Pratt (4-1) pitched 2 2/3 innings of relief to earn the win while Tyler Isbell registered his first save with two scoreless innings to preserve the win.
