HARROGATE, Tenn. – The fourth-ranked Alabama-Huntsville Chargers (19-4-1) put on an offensive clinic and overwhelmed the Railsplitters (17-12) to sweep an NCAA Division II doubleheader on Wednesday at Lamar Hennon Field in Harrogate, Tenn. by scores of 29-13 and 14-2.
The Chargers opened up game one by hanging five runs on the board with a three-run home run from Ryan Barnes and a two-run shot from A.J. Walden, but that was just a prelude to a 14-run explosion in the top of the second. Alabama-Huntsville batted around twice in that inning, with the visiting unit putting nine straight batters on base at one point. Barnes drove in three runs in that inning alone.
Lincoln Memorial put a run on the board in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly out from
Kelvin Brito (Yabucoa, Puerto Rico), but the Chargers hung six more runs on the board in the top of the third, with Chandler Brock and Colton Simbeck both accounting for two-run home runs in the inning.
A three-run bomb from
Jacob West (Maryville, Tenn.) and a two-run shot by
Muta Crusoe (Bellwood, Ill.) headlined a six-run inning for the Railsplitters in the bottom of the third, but the Chargers erased half of that output with a three-run blast from Michael Fox in the top of the fourth.
The two teams combined for 12 home runs in the contest, as
Nick Morabito (Vienna, Va.) went deep in the fifth, Fox added his second home run for UAH in the seventh, and
Danny Valdez (Orlando, Fla.) and West cranked long balls in bottom of the seventh.
Alabama-Huntsville finished with 24 hits and seven home runs.
Jake Watkins (Powder Springs, Ga.) was saddled with the loss after allowing 12 runs and 10 hits in 1 1/3 innings.
Carson Taylor (Fayetteville, Tenn.) was a bright spot on the mound for the Railsplitters, allowing just one earned run with three hits in three innings of relief.
Brandon Morris (Knoxville, Tenn.) was 2-for-3 with two RBI, while West notched the first multi-home run game of his career, driving in five runs. Crusoe and Morabito added two hits apiece.
The top of the second inning proved troublesome again for the Railsplitters in game two, as the Chargers used a walk and two hit-by-pitches to load the bases and spark a deadly two-out rally. A costly play that saw Lincoln Memorial commit two errors allowed all three runners to score, and Alabama-Huntsville then went on to add four more runs on an RBI single from Lawing and a three-run home run from Barnes.
LMU and UAH traded runs in the bottom of the second and the top of the third, while the Railsplitters trimmed the deficit to 8-2 on an RBI groundout from
Logan Augustine (Urbandale, Iowa) in the bottom of the third.
Alabama-Huntsville outscored the Railsplitters 6-0 over the remainder of the contest, though, tacking on four runs in the top of the sixth inning alone. Barnes, meanwhile, hit his third home run of the doubleheader to complete the scoring in the top of the seventh.
Augustine suffered the loss after allowing three hits and eight runs, only one of which was earned, in the four-inning start.
The Railsplitters were limited to just five hits in the game, led by
Ryan Burlison's (Romeoville, Ill.) 2-for-2 showing.
Lincoln Memorial returns to South Atlantic Conference play on Friday, beginning a three-game set against the Brevard Tornados in Brevard, N.C. at 2 p.m.
