CENTRAL, S.C. | Southern Wesleyan University rallied for seven runs - four of them unearned - over the final three innings to rally for a 9-8 non-conference baseball victory over Young Harris College Wednesday (March 22) evening at Keith Conner Field.

The Warriors improved to 8-19, while the Mountain Lions fell to 9-15. Young Harris returns to Zell B. Miller Field Friday (March 24) when they start a three-game Peach Belt Conference series against Georgia College at 6 p.m.

Young Harris opened up a 7-2 lead entering the bottom of the seventh. Southern Wesleyan scored twice in the inning to ignite the rally with a bases-loaded walk and a passed ball to trim the margin to 7-4. Young Harris, which scored in every inning but the third and ninth, got a run back in the eighth on a Brett Westmoreland single up the middle. 

The Warriors tied the game at 8 in the bottom of the eighth as they converted two YHC errors that would have ended  the inning into four runs, three of them unearned.

Young Harris had a chance to reclaim the lead in the ninth inning. Nick Sexton led off with a single up the middle, stole second and moved over to third on a passed ball with no one out, but failed to knock in the go-ahead run against SWU reliever Jarrett Joyner (2-1). The Mountain Lions stranded 15 runners in the game.

Southern Wesleyan won the game in its half of the ninth when the Warriors added another unearned run when DiMarkus Sanders singled down the left field line off YHC reliever Jack Ganter (0-1) to score Izzy Martine, who had reached on a fielding error.

Westmoreland, Rudy Gaona, and Jackson Jones each hit a home run for the Mountain Lions. Westmoreland and Jones went back-to-back in the second inning. Westmoreland's fourth of the season went to left field, while Jones smacked his first homer of the year to right.  Gaona connected on his homer - his third of 2017 - to right field in the sixth.

Gaona had three of the 12 hits by the Mountain Lions, while Luke Miller, Westmoreland and Jones had two apiece. Gaona and Westmoreland each drove in two runs for YHC. Sexton stole three bases for Young Harris, while Miller and Adrik Yacelga recorded a theft each.