Lee baseball will look long and hard at Gulf South Conference game that slipped away in the top of the eighth inning at Olympic Field on Sunday afternoon.
 
After leading 5-2 heading into the top of the eighth, the Flames looked to be in great shape and salvage the final game of a three-game series against visiting Union University.
 
The wheels came off in the eighth and the Bulldogs took advantage of a pair of key errors to plate four runs and post a 6-5 comeback win over the struggling Flames. The win moved the Bulldogs to 26-12 overall and higher in the GSC with a 15-8 mark. The Flames slipped to 21-18 and stand at 9-15 in league play.
 
"This loss is all on me," said Lee head coach Mark Brew, who was honored before the game for coaching Lee baseball to 500 victories. "Our duty is to place our players in the right position at the right time and apparently we are not doing a very good job of that right now. We will come back to practice on Tuesday and continue to work hard and correct our mistakes."
 
The Bulldogs took advantage of unusual wildness of Lee lefty Art Vidrio in the first inning. Vidrio walked four batters in the frame and Union collected only one hit in moving out to a 2-0 advantage. The Flames fought right back with four runs of their own in the bottom of the same inning. Jordan Howard singled and scored on a two-run homer by Nate Wierzgac. It was Wierzgac's team-leading seventh home run of the year. He later posted a one-base hit.
 
The 4-2 Lee lead stood until the Flames pushed across what appeared to be a key insurance run in the bottom of the seventh and increased their lead to 5-2. Jeffrey Chapuran walked. Howard posted his second hit of the day and Wierzgac was issued a free pass to load the bases. Tyler Payne was hit by a pitch and collected a RBI.
 
After throwing 141 pitches, Vidrio gave up only three hits, two earned runs but walked eight while striking out six. He was lifted for relief pitcher Joe Parete (4-2) with one out in the eighth inning. He was charged with the loss. In one inning, Parete gave up three hits, three earned runs and walked a pair. Kit Larson recorded the final two outs in the eighth. The end result was four runs on only two hits in the frame.
 
"Neither Parete nor Larson are to blame with our letdown in the eighth," pointed out Brew. "We made mistakes in the field that we work on every day and we will continue to do that on Tuesday."
 
The Bulldogs used four hurlers in the victory. Skylar Harrison was lifted in the first inning after giving up four hits and four earned runs. Austin Kitterman came on for a solid 4.2 innings and did not allow a score. Joe Hudson pitched an inning and gave up a run to the Flames, while Marty Coursey (4-2) shut down the Flames in the final three innings without allowing a hit.
 
The Flames will return to Olympic Field on Wednesday and will host Young Harris College in a non-conference game slated for a 6 p.m. opening pitch.