Railsplitters Take Game Three To Keep ConferenceTournament Playoff Hopes Alive

Box Score

HARROGATE, TN - The Lincoln Memorial University baseball team kept the possibility of making its first South Atlantic Conference Baseball Tournament alive Sunday afternoon when the Railsplitters tallied an 11-1 win over league opponent Wingate University in the final game of a three game series.

After falling in the opening two games 14-0 and 1-0, the Railsplitters bounced back in their final home conference bout of the season to improve their overall record to 28-17 and their conference mark to 7-12 on the season.

Sunday's win puts the Railsplitters two games behind no. 6 conference ranked Wingate University in the league standings entering the final week of the conference schedule.  On Friday and Saturday, LMU is scheduled to travel to Newberry, South Carolina to take on Newberry College in a three game series.

Essentially, the Railsplitters need to sweep Newberry and for Wingate to have a bad weekend against league opponent Carson-Newman College in order to have a realistic shot at making this year's conference tournament.  The Bulldogs are also set to take on the Eagles of Carson-Newman next weekend in Jefferson City, Tennessee.

Wingate's series against Carson-Newman is stacked against the Eagles and the Railsplitters.  Carson-Newman has lost their last two SAC games and currently stands in eighth place in the league standings making Wingate a slight favorite for victory next weekend.

To make matters worse for the Railsplitters, Newberry is coming off of series losing one game to two split with Tusculum and maintain the fifth or at least sixth spot in the league standinngs when it hosts the Railsplitters next weekend.

The conference tournament only takes the leagues top six teams into the conference tournament following the end of the regular season.  Friday evening's first game gets underway at 7:00 p.m.

Lincoln Memorial 11, Wingate 1 (Apr 12, 2009 at Harrogate, TN)
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Wingate............. 000 000 100  -  1  8  0      (21-25, 10-9 SAC)
Lincoln Memorial.... 201 000 26X  - 11 13  0      (28-17, 7-12 SAC)
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Pitchers: Wingate - Dusty White; Kevin Childs(3); TJ Worrell(7); Gray Carden(8); Jacob Karr(8) and Dustin Hurdle. Lincoln Memorial - Mitch Kramer and Jason Pabon.
Win-Mitch Kramer(6-1)  Loss-Dusty White(3-4)  T-2:50  A-125
HR LMU - Cody Pack (7); Shane Kaufman (3).
Weather: Light Clouds, mid 50s
TJ Worrell faced 2 batters in the 8th.
Gray Carden faced 2 batters in the 8th.

Which fall sport are you looking forward to the most?