ROME, Ga. – Shorter University opened a weekend baseball series with Young Harris College by picking up a 2-1 decision Friday (Feb. 7) afternoon at the Ledbetter Complex.

The Hawks improved to 1-4 while the Mountain Lions fell to 1-3. All three Young Harris losses have come by a single run. The two teams will play the middle game of the series Saturday (Feb. 8) at noon.

Shorter took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth off Young Harris starter Cody Beck (0-1). Zach Santos started the rally with a one-out double to center field.  Santos moved up 90 feet on a fly out by Brian Mathews and later scored on Ian Redetzky's single.

The Hawks added a run in their half of the sixth. Mathews and Walker Borneman collected singles before Chad Ikerd drove in Mathews with his two-out single.

Young Harris got a run back in the top of the seventh. Thomas drew a leadoff walk from Shorter starter Colton Cross (1-0) and moved up a base on pinch hitter Nick Sexton's groundout.  Thomas then stole third base and came around to score on Adam Moore's RBI double.  Moore was one of four Young Harris batters to collect two hits. Dom Wyshinski, Josh Rudnik and Tom Valichka were the others.

Moore stole third base, but was left stranded in scoring position as Cross got the next two batters to fly out and strike out. Young Harris, which had scoring opportunities in the eighth and ninth innings, stranded 13 runners, including eight in scoring position, against the Hawks.