WINTER PARK, Fla. – The Young Harris College baseball team started their 2015 season with a split of their doubleheader against Rollins College Saturday (Jan. 31) at Alfond Stadium.

The Tars collected 17 hits in the opener as Rollins picked up a 17-6 win while Young Harris scored nine runs over the first three innings of game two en route to an 11-5 victory.

Young Harris improved to 1-1 while Rollins fell to 1-1. The two teams wrap up their three-game series Sunday (Feb. 1) with a 1 p.m. contest.

Philip Burket led Rollins in the opener with seven RBI, including a first-inning grand slam.

The Mountain Lions got their own grand slam as Zach Wall smacked a home run over the left field wall. Jimmy Pinakidis reached on an error before Nick Sexton, who went 3-for-5, and Brett Westmoreland, who went 2-for-4 with two RBI, each followed with singles.

Matt Hendricks (1-0) earned the win for the Tars while Donald Frew (0-1) absorbed the loss.

Young Harris took a 1-0 lead in the first on Westmoreland's home run. After Rollins tied the game in the bottom of the first, the Mountain Lions broke open the nightcap with a five-run second inning off Rollins starter Nick Holstead (0-1).  Zach Odom gave Young Harris the lead for good on a bases-loaded walk. Sexton followed with his own bases-loaded walk while Westmoreland, who went 4-for-4 with three RBI, drove in a run on an infield single. Wall closed out the scoring with a two-run single.

"The team played hard both games," said YHC head coach Travis Huffman. "We got a good start out of (Justin) Cooper in the second game and (Cole) Amtmann did a solid job coming out of the pen. We played solid defense in both games and got a few timely hits during the second game."

The Mountain Lions added three more runs in the third to take a 9-1 lead as they took advantage of two errors by Rollins. Pinakidis drove in a run on a grounder and Westmoreland added a RBI single. YHC added two more runs in the sixth.

Justin Cooper (1-0) scattered seven hits and struck out six to pick up the win.