Lee University completes baseball sweep

Friday, January 1, 1904

Lee University completed a Southern States Athletic Conference baseball series sweep of Southern Polytechnic with 6-5 and 7-0 victories Saturday at Olympic Field in Cleveland, but the first one was harder than it needed to be.

Three of the Hornets' five runs off star left-handed pitcher Patrick Merkling were unearned, and Lee -- ranked third in the NAIA after a brief stay at No. 1 -- had to score two runs in the bottom of the seventh.

Mike Moore was 2-for-3 and batted in two runs, the second one ending the game with a sacrifice fly, and Trevor Burgess and Brady Renner also had two hits each for the Flames (39-6-1, 21-3) in game one. In the finale, Blake Barber was 2-for-4 with three RBIs, Renner was 3-for-4 and scored twice and Burgess was 2-for-3. Vance Spilker, Kyle Briner and Andy Hillis combined to pitch the shutout.

• Tennessee Wesleyan 5-6, Point 0-2: At East Point, Ga., the NAIA's 10th-ranked Bulldogs improved to 31-8 overall and 14-1 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference with the doubleheader sweep after winning 7-2 on Friday. Point is 22-19, 8-9.

• Cumberland 5-6, Bryan 0-1: At Lebanon, Tenn., the visiting Lions -- a Tennessee NAIA program on the rise -- managed only three hits in each game and totaled five errors while the tradition-rich Bulldogs (22-19) had six hits in each game and scored in the latter innings. Mike Mandarino pitched the second three-hitter with 11 strikeouts and helped himself by going 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs. Bryan is 31-13.

• Covenant 11, Maryville 6: At Covenant, the hosts salvaged the finale of the Great South Athletic Conference battle of Scots, as Kurt Wiles drove in five runs and Ben Chambers, Chris Rollins and Jonathan Carter each had two hits, an RBI and at least two runs. Chambers scored three, and Rollins doubled twice and walked twice.

Covenant (14-13, 5-7) led 10-0 after two innings, helped by Wiles' bases-loaded walk in the six-run first and his grand slam the next time up. Blake Gentry was 3-for-5 and Mikee Moore had a two-run triple for Maryville (13-15, 2-4).

• Berry 6-13, Tennessee Temple 2-4: At Rome, Ga., the Vikings completed a three-game sweep as Austin Neely had three hits and scored four runs in the finale and Zach Farmer had two hits in each of Saturday's wins.

Chris Altman had multiple hits in each game for Temple (12-26-1), and Ryan Bruce and Jon Clayton joined him in the finale, when Clayton had two RBIs. Bruce and Luke Daniel had the Crusaders' RBIs in the first game, when Hunter Giles allowed only two earned runs in his six innings pitched.

• Millsaps 14-11, Sewanee 2-6: At Jackson, Miss., the Tigers dropped to 2-7 in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, 11-7 overall, when Millsaps rallied from a 6-4 deficit in game two to complete the sweep.

Ryne Sullivan and Alan Komorowski had three hits apiece in Sewanee's 12-hit second game, and Jack Whaley and Wilson Nealy each had two hits while Michael Walker drove in three runs. Nealy was 2-for-3 with a double in game one.