The Lee University baseball team opened the Gulf South Conference (GSC) portion of its schedule with a doubleheader sweep of The University of Alabama in Huntsville Saturday afternoon at Olympic Field. The Flames (9-1, 2-0 GSC) won the opener 5-2 and held on to win the nightcap 3-1. The finale of the three-game series is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday.

"We have a great opportunity to sweep a quality opponent tomorrow," acknowledged Lee head coach Mark Brew. "However, it will not be easy as UAH has a quality arm going on the mound. We will have to play much better defensively tomorrow."

The Flames and Chargers (2-7, 0-2 GSC) combined for 11 errors in the two games with Lee accounting for six of those.

LEE 5, UAH 2

Spencer Mossburg and Drew Johnson recorded five RBI to lead the Flames to the win in the series opener. Mossburg finished the game 1-for-4 with two sacrifice flies and an RBI triple. Johnson was 2-for-5 with two RBI.

Tyler Payne led the Flames with a 3-for-3 performance. He legged out a double and scored three runs. Miguel Pimentel was the only other Flame with multiple hits. He singled and tripled in the win.

"Offensively, we had opportunities to get away from them early in the third and fourth inning, but left way too many runners on base during that stretch," added Brew. "With that being said, I was pleased at how we responded every time they put up a run by countering with a run of our own. Tyler Payne had his best game at the plate thus far this season and it's good to see him get going to help our lineup out."

The Flames jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Mossburg opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly to drive in Cam Scott. With two out, Johnson singled up the middle to bring around Payne and Jordan Howard.

UAH ended Lee's shutout bid with a run in the fifth on a misplayed grounder, but Lee answered in the next frame with another Mossburg sacrifice fly. The Chargers would strike again in the seventh inning with the aid of a Lee error. Once again, the Lee offense would respond in the bottom of the inning.  Payne delivered a two-out double and scored on Mossburg's triple.

Art Vidrio pushed his season record to 3-0 after allowing just one hit, one run and two walks in five innings of work. Vidrio struck out five Chargers.

Jay Prior allowed two hits, one unearned run and struck out one in two innings of relief. Joe Parete walked one in one inning on the mound. Kit Larson recorded the save with a three-batter ninth inning where he fanned two.

"I thought Art pitched well, but they did a good job of elevating his pitch count and we didn't want to send him back out in the sixth inning. Prior did a nice job bridging the gap and getting us to Parete and Larson," said Brew.

LEE 3, UAH 1

Lee made the most out of four hits and used three UAH errors to win game two.  Two runs in the second inning and one in the fifth were all that was needed.

Nathan Wierzgac was 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored. Peyton Meeker and Jeffrey Chapuran claimed the other two Lee hits.

Jumpei Akanuma earned the first win of his Lee career. The junior scattered five hits and two walks over four innings, gave up one run and struck out three.

Corbin Lamb walked one of the seven batters he faced in two innings of work. Larson pitched the final inning to pick up his fifth save of the season. He surrendered two hits and struck out one.

"Once again, the bullpen was lights out with Lamb giving us two great innings and handing the ball off to Larson in the seventh again," Brew added.

The Chargers struck first with a run in the first inning. Ben Rhodes doubled and was driven in two batters later by a Nolan Ramsey single.

Lee responded in the bottom of the second with two runs. Peyton Meeker singled to start the inning and advanced to third on Wierzgac's double. With Howard batting, Meeker scored on a wild pitch and, after moving over to third on the same wild pitch, Wierzgac scored on a throwing error by the catcher.

The Flames would add a third run in the fifth inning with an RBI single by Jeffrey Chapuran. Howard scored after reaching second on a dropped pop up in the infield.

"We had some hard lineouts early, but had nothing to show for it," admitted Brew. "Scoring two runs on the one wild pitch seemed to give us a little lift and was a great hustle play by Wierzgac. That was a big insurance run that Chapuran produced in the sixth inning."