Fourth-year senior Nick Gillung went seven innings and struck out 14 batters to help the 17^th-ranked Lakers to a 7-2 win over Winston Salem State in the first game of the NCAA Atlantic Region Baseball Championship.

 
The win tied the Mercyhurst single-season record for victories set by the 1997 squad coached by Joe Jordano.

 
The Lakers will now play at 6 p.m. on Saturday against the winner of tonight's 8 p.m. game between Seton Hill and East Stroudsburg.

 
After struggling early, Gillung battled back to win his eighth game of the year to tie six others for the fourth-best mark in victories. He allowed two unearned runs on three hits while falling one-shy of his personal best in strikeouts.

 
Matthew Jimenez came on to close the door on the Rams, allowing just one hit in two innings of work.

Mercyhurst opened the scoring in the first inning after Craig Denman drew a bases-loaded walk from Rams starter Brice Rivenbark.   The Lakers then added a run in the fourth when Zak Blair singled home Adam Brentlinger, who led off the inning with a single.

 
Winston-Salem cut the lead to 2-1 in the sixth but the Lakers were able to push across three in the bottom half of the inning following heavy, steady rain. Ethan Santora's 2-RBI double highlighted the inning while Blair contributed his second RBI to begin the frame. Santora finished the game 2-for-3 while Blair went 2-for-5 with each scoring a run and driving in two.

 
After another WSS run in the seventh, the Lakers added two more in the eighth thanks to a Shane Latshaw sacrifice fly and pinch-hit RBI-double by Forrest Boggs for the final score. 

 

Notes:

Senior lefthander Nick Gillung moved into fourth-place on the single-season wins list, tying six others. He also earned his 21^st all-time win, tying Casey Crawford (1993-96) for second place in that category.

 
Mercyhurst won its 40^th game this year, tying the program record for wins. 

 

Junior Zak Blair is five hits away from tying the single-season mark (76) set by Jamie Walczak in 2009.