ANDERSON, S.C. – The Anderson baseball team, which had to rally for a pair of wins a little more than 24 hours earlier, scored early and often in a 15-3 rout of Mars Hill in the series finale of a pivotal South Atlantic Conference weekend, Sunday night at Memorial Stadium.
With the sweep, Anderson (22-22, 10-10 SAC) has won five of its last six decisions and has climbed back to .500 in league play for the first time in three weeks. Mars Hill fell to 11-33 overall and 8-16 in conference action.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Senior Carlos Hernandez was 2-for-3 on the night, with two singles and a pair of walks. The Maracay, Venezuela, native scored twice and drove in four runs. Luke Poole added a pair of singles and a walk, while crossing the plate four times. JC LeGrand was 2-for-5, with a double and a single and drove in a pair of runs. Jordan Montgomery reached base on a single and a pair of walks, while scoring twice. Justin Fox notched a two-run double and a walk, with Braeden Harrison posting a walk and a three-run double. Brayden Owens notched a two-run single in the third inning.
HOW IT HAPPENED
AU jumped out to a quick, 2-0, lead on a two-out single by Hernandez in the bottom of the first inning and never looked back.
The Trojans added six runs in the third frame and tallied two more in the fourth inning en route to building a 10-0 cushion. The Lions avoided the shutout with a solo run in the top of the lengthy sixth inning, with AU sending 11 batters to the plate and tallying five more runs in the bottom of the inning.
Mars Hill rounded out the scoring with a pair of runs in the eighth.
ANDERSON STAT OF THE DAY
A combined 39 players, including 11 pitchers, saw action in the contest.
NOTABLES
• The game featured a combined 67 at-bats.
• JC LeGrand is riding a team-high 12-game hitting streak.
• Luke Poole has reached base safely in 21 consecutive games.
• Anderson leads the overall series with the Lions, 25-15.
• The Trojans are in sixth place in the battle for a spot in the eight-team SAC Tournament, which begins later this month.
• With three conference games left on its schedule, AU trails Carson-Newman and Catawba, which are tied for fifth place, by four games.
• The Trojans lead both Limestone and Tusculum by a ½ game and lead Lincoln Memorial by one game.
• The Trojans lead 10th-place Mars Hill by 3 ½ games.
• Tusculum, which snapped a five-game skid by defeating Catawba, Sunday afternoon, will play host to the Trojans next weekend.
• Lincoln Memorial is scheduled to wrap up its three-game series at UVA Wise on Monday, then close out its conference slate at home against Emory & Henry next weekend.
• Limestone, which just swept a three-game set with Emory & Henry, will close out its SAC schedule at home against Catawba.
• 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
AU is slated to open a four-game road swing at Belmont Abbey, Tuesday afternoon. The midweek matchup will mark just the sixth meeting between the Trojans and Crusaders since the 2013 season.
