CLEVELAND, Tenn. - The Lee University baseball team continued its hard-hitting attack, pounding out 15 hits in a 14-6 victory over nationally ranked Young Harris College at Larry Carpenter Stadium on Tuesday evening. The win was the ninth straight by the Flames who improved to 29-13 overall while the Mountain Lions dropped to 31-12.
The upcoming weekend is by far the biggest of the year for Coach Mark Brew and his baseball team. It begins on Friday evening at 5 p.m. when the Flames honor JJ Williams and Luke Collier on Senior Night. The important three-game GSC series with the University of West Alabama also gets underway with a single nine-inning game.
On Saturday afternoon, it gets even bigger when Military Appreciation Day begins at 12:15 and the area veterans are honored. The doubleheader with the Tigers follows with the first pitch slated for 1 p.m.
The Flames wasted no time in gaining a 3-0 lead over the visiting Mountain Lions. The margin was cut to 3-2 in the top of the fourth inning, but Lee rallied back in the bottom of the inning and posted a 5-2 advantage.
The contest remained tight as the Mountain Lions tallied a pair of runs in the fifth and sliced the lead to 5-4. However, Lee put a three-spot on the board in the sixth inning and claimed an 8-4 separation. Young Harris would not fold and countered with two runs in the top of the seventh, and it was an 8-6 battle.
The Flames ended the suspense with a solo run in the seventh and five big scores in the eighth to avenge an earlier loss to the highly ranked Mountain Lions.
Landon Franklin paced Lee's 15-hit attack with his fifth home run and two singles. He batted in a pair of runs and scored twice. Braden Gabel continued his hot streak with two hits, two RBI and three scores.
The Flames had three other hitters with two hits apiece. Isaiah French led the parade with a triple and a single. He batted in three runs with his three-base hit and scored one time. Luke Collier also had a pair of hits, tallied three times, and knocked in a run. Aiden McClary joined his hard-hitting teammate with two hits, two runs and a RBI.
Casen Youngblood blasted a long two-base knock and registered an RBI. Ryan Valdes and Keilin Sanders got into the act with hits and an RBI while Nathan Dunfee singled and scored once. JJ Williams walked twice, got an RBI, and scored a run.
Lee used six pitchers in the win. Lefty Zach Tierney started and pitched four innings. He allowed three hits, two earned runs, fanned one and walked one. Landon Nease was the third hurler to take the mound. He picked up his first win of the year, hurling 1.2 innings, allowing two hits and no earned runs. Mason Bratcher gave the Flames 1.1 innings of solid work. He gave up a hit and no runs while Tyler Pickens hurled a perfect ninth inning and picked up a strikeout.
Jackson Morgan paced Young Harris with two hits, three RBI and a run scored while Jayden Carbonell-Smith added two hits and scored twice. Kade Smallwood and Drew Bray singled and had RBIs while Jonny Smith knocked in the other run for the losers. The Mountain Lions used seven pitchers. Austin Ritchie (2-1) was the starting and losing pitcher.
Coach Mark Brew's thoughts:
"It was a really good midweek win for us against a really, really good Young Harris team. Zach Tierney continues to give us quality innings and we got some solid performances out of the bullpen. Our offense continues to provide plenty of support and we were able to push away from them with nine runs in the last three innings. We've got another big weekend with a really good West Alabama team and lots of things going on around the ballpark with our Senior Night on Friday and our annual Military Appreciation Day on Saturday."
