ANDERSON, S.C. – The Anderson baseball team rallied in both ends of a crucial South Atlantic Conference doubleheader and swept Mars Hill, 4-2 and 12-4, Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.
Anderson improved to 21-22 overall and 9-10 in league play with its second straight win and fourth victory in five decisions, while Mars Hill fell to 11-32 and 8-14 with its fifth loss in six outings.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Game #1
Anderson 4, Mars Hill 2
Freshman Gray Wells came through with a clutch pinch-hit one-out double that plated both Poole and Andress in the eighth. JC Legrand was 2-for-4 in the opener, with a third-inning single and a game-tying solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, while senior Carlos Hernandez added a pair of singles and a walk in four trips to the plate. Senior Justin Fox posted a walk and a single, with Luke Poole scoring a pair of runs, including the eventual game-winner after drawing a lead-off walk in the bottom of the eighth. Kye Andress reached base on a pair of walks and crossed the plate with an insurance run in the eighth.
Trey Princiotto drew his 11th start of the season and allowed just one run on four hits in 5.1 innings of work on the mound. He struck out two batters and walked three. Jackson Herring (3-0) earned the win after working 2.2 innings of relief. He fanned three Lions and did not walk a batter. Nick Miller captured his second save of the year by tossing a hitless ninth inning.
Game #2
Anderson 12, Mars Hill 4
Hernandez added a single and a two-run double in the nightcap, while Andress ripped a one-out, bases-loaded triple in the decisive sixth inning. Fox was 1-for-3, with a walk and a two-run single, while LeGrand drove in three runs with a double in the sixth.
Grad student Jordan Montgomery was 1-for-3 with a single and a walk, while freshman Braeden Harrison chipped in a walk and a double. Brayden Owens was 1-for-3 and also posted a walk.
Senior Austin Mercado (6-1) settled in after a rough start and tossed six complete innings, while allowing four runs on nine hits. He struck out five and walked just one.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Game 1
Mars Hill struck first with a solo run in the top of the second inning and held the one-run edge until Poole reached base on a fielder's choice in the bottom of the sixth. He moved to third on Hernandez' second single of the contest and knotted the score when Andress grounded out to the right side.
AU then grabbed a brief 2-1 lead when LeGrand clubbed his third home run of the season – a solo shot over the right-field fence – in the bottom of the seventh. But the lead was short-lived, as MHU countered with a run of their own in the eighth to even the score.
Poole opened the home half of the eighth with a walk and Andress followed two batters later with another walk. Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch and scored when Wells ripped his fourth double of the season down the left-field line to give AU a 4-2 lead. Miller then finished out the ninth to claim the save.
Game 2
The Lions again struck first and built a 4-0 advantage with a two-run first inning and added solo runs in the second and third frames.
The Trojans sliced the deficit in half with two runs in the fourth and blew the game open by sending 14 batters to the plate in the sixth inning and scoring 10 runs.
ANDERSON STAT OF THE DAY
Trojan hitters recorded six extra-base hits and drew 14 walks, while AU hurlers walked just five Mars Hill batters.
NOTABLES
• JC LeGrand is riding an 11-game hitting streak.
• Luke Poole has reached base safely in 20 consecutive games.
• Anderson leads the overall series with the Lions, 24-15.
• The Trojans snapped a four-game losing streak to Mars Hill.
• The Trojans are in seventh place in the battle for a spot in the eight-team SAC Tournament, which begins later this month.
• With four conference games left on its schedule, AU trails sixth-place Limestone by one game and leads Lincoln Memorial and Tusculum by ½ game heading into the series finale.
• The Trojans lead 10th-place Mars Hill by 2 ½ games.
• AU holds the tiebreaker with Lincoln Memorial and Mars Hill after taking two from each team. Limestone defeated the Trojans twice in mid-February, but the three-game series was scheduled as nonconference matchups.
• The Trojans are bidding for the program's first winning season since the 2003 campaign and need to win four of their remaining six regular-season games to reach that mark.
• AU is seeking its first postseason appearance since the 2019 campaign.
UP NEXT
The Trojans and Lions are scheduled to wrap up the three-game series, Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.
