Salem, WV - Mercyhurst Baseball completes the sweep on the road over the Tigers with their 9-8 win Monday afternoon. The Lakers scored three runs in the final two frames to help them take the lead, and eventually the game, and move to 4-4 on the young season

How it Happened

After struggling to get on the board early yesterday, the Lakers wasted no time in this one as they fired the opening salvo in the first. A leadoff walk by Matt Christopher followed by another by Eric Chorba brought the bats to life as a sacrifice fly from Chris Juchno and an RBI double from Vincent Stutz made it 2-0 going into the bottom half of the opening frame. Salem had a rebuttal, though, and managed to take the lead at 3-2 at the end of the first.

Salem added on in the third inning with two more runs to extend their lead to three going into the middle innings. Mercyhurst managed to burst through in the top of the fifth with four runs in the frame to regain the lead by one run. Singles from Ryan Hill and Christopher got the ball rolling with Chorba singling in the Laker third basemen for their first run of the inning. The biggest hit of the canto came from Zachary Kourous who had a two-run single with two outs to give Mercyhurst the lead at 6-5.

Salem managed to tie things up in the bottom of the fifth with the Tigers adding on in the bottom of the seventh to make it an 8-6 score as the game continued to dwindle. Coach Spano's crew did no go away quietly as a Ryan Hill homer moved the Lakers a little closer at 8-7 going into the ninth.

In their final frame, it was Kourous who came up big for the Lakers, giving them a 9-8 lead. The freshman came up with a clutch double to bring in Juchno and Stutz for his third and fourth RBIs of the day to help give Mercyhurst the lift they needed to break out the brooms and move to .500 on the year.

Highlights

Juchno and Kourous led the team in hits with threeapiece while the freshmen's final going for extra bases while adding four RBIs to his line. Ryan Hill, Vincent Stutz, and Lucas Folmar each had two hits as well with one of Hill's being a big one as he hit his first home run of the season. Cody Smith proved to be lockdown out of the bullpen, going two shutout innings while adding a pair of strikeouts to his line. Brandon Arnold also had a solid outing as a reliever as he pitched one inning and fanned one. 

Next Game

The Lakers stay on the road for their next series as they travel to take on Findlay. Mercyhurst heads to the buckeye state for their meeting with the Oilers with the series beginning on Thursday, March 9th, at 1:00 p.m. and ending on Sunday with first pitch set for 4:00 p.m.