EMERSON, Ga. -- The Mercyhurst baseball team claimed a pair of non-conference victories over Stillman, 8-3 and 9-4, at a neutral location on Sunday.
In the 8-3 win,
Daniel Elliott led the offense, going 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and stolen base.
Brendan Cox added a 2-for-4 game with one run,
Sabatino DiNardo III drove in two runs and
Hank Morrison scored twice.
Joe Gnacinski was the winning pitcher, working five innings. He allowed six hits and only one of the two runs scored on him was earned. Gnacinski also totaled five strikeouts and one walk. John LaManna tossed one inning of scoreless relief.
The Lakers took the lead in the first inning on a two-run single by DiNardo before Stillman struck back for two in the third.
The decisive frame was the Mercyhurst fourth in which the lakers scored five runs on only one hit.
Chris Gonzalez had the only hit of the inning. Otherwise, MU benefitted from three walks, a Stillman error that scored two runs, a run-scoring wild pitch, a run-scoring balk and a stolen base at home by
Collin Fantaskey.
Elliott tacked on an RBI double in the fifth for the Lakers' final run before Stillman scored one in the seventh.
During the 9-4 victory,
Jimmy Latona had a solid outing, going 2-for-4 with two doubles, two runs and four RBI. Morrison added a 3-for-4 game with a homer, double, run and two RBI. Gonzalez went 2-for-2 with a run.
Cam Knott started on the hill for Mercyhurst, giving up two hits in four innings of work. Two runs were scored on Knott -- neither was earned -- as he finished with five strikeouts and three walks. Reliever
Andrew Ciolli threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the win.
After MU fell behind 2-0 in the fourth, MU had a quick answer in the fifth: an RBI single by Latona and a sacrifice fly by Cox.
Another two-run Stillman inning in the fifth put the Lakers behind 4-2 before they erupted for a seven-run sixth. The decisive frame was highlighted by a three-run double by Latona and a two-run homer from Morrison.
Drew Borowski added an RBI double and
Austin Alonge smacked a sac fly.
The Lakers (3-1) will return to action on Feb. 19-21 with games against Post, Le Moyne (2) and Mansfield in Petersburg, Va.
