HARROGATE, Tenn. -- Freshman left-hander Ethan Elliott (Knoxville, Tenn.) became just the fourth pitcher in program history to win eight games in a season, tossing his fourth career complete game to help the Railsplitters (24-14, 10-7 SAC) split a South Atlantic Conference doubleheader against the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears (27-13, 8-9 SAC) on Sunday at Lamar Hennon Field.
 
Lincoln Memorial held a late lead in Sunday's matinee, but Lenoir-Rhyne used some solid relief pitching to rally for an 8-5 win. The Railsplitters bounced back in a big way in game two, though, using Elliott's sensational outing and a go-ahead grand slam by Russell Clark (Wexford, Pa.) to salvage the split with an 11-2 win.
 
Lincoln Memorial and Lenoir-Rhyne complete their three-game set with the rubber game on Monday, with first pitch set for 1 p.m. at Lamar Hennon Field.
 
Game One: Lenoir-Rhyne 8, Lincoln Memorial 5
 
The Bears scored four runs in the top of the seventh to hand the lead over to reliever John Curtis, who retired the last 10 batters he faced to push Lenoir-Rhyne past the Railsplitters in game one.
 
Lincoln Memorial chased Lenoir-Rhyne starter Austin Hancock from the game early, tagging the hard-throwing right-hander for four hits and four runs before he was removed in the fourth frame.  But Curtis picked up his teammate and dazzled over the final 5 1/3 innings, allowing just one hit and one run with eight strikeouts to improve to 1-0 on the season.
 
The Railsplitters produced just five hits in the contest and went hitless in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Clark finished 1 for 3 with a walk, an RBI and two runs scored, while Joe Stucky (Knoxville, Tenn.), Danny Valdez (Orlando, Fla.), Cody Hinson (Taylor Ridge, Ill.) and Logan Augustine (Urbandale, Iowa) accounted for an RBI apiece for Lincoln Memorial. Augustine reached base twice on two walks and added a run.
 
Junior right-hander Brandon Jean (Franklin, Tenn.) made a strong start for the Railsplitters, but had to settle for the no decision after the bullpen relinquished the lead. Jean held the Bears to five runs on 10 hits over 6 1/3 innings while walking three and striking out four.
 
Dominic Morabito (Vienna, Va.) was saddled with the loss after giving up three runs on two hits and two walks in 2 2/3 innings of relief, falling to 2-3 on the season. Morabito struck out six, hit two batters and recorded four wild pitches, including two costly ones in the seventh.
 
The Bears collected 12 hits in the game with six going for extra bases. Garrett Vaughn went 2 for 5 with two RBI and a home run, while Ryan Perkins, Justin Dean and Colby Dishmond also contributed two hits. David Newcomer had two RBI.
 
The Railsplitters took the lead in the bottom of the first, when Rodriguez led off with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly out from Augustine. Lenoir-Rhyne responded in the third inning, though, as Perkins doubled down the left-field line before scoring on a single from Dean in the next at-bat.
 
The Bears grabbed a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning, as Vaughn doubled with one out in the inning and scored on a single from Perkins.
 
Lincoln Memorial got something going again in the home half of the fourth, as Dillard singled and Augustine walked to put two runners on with one out. After a wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, Clark singled in a run to tie the game. After Peyton Sawyer (Knoxville, Tenn.) drew a walk, Hinson put the Railsplitters in front with a single to right field. Valdez then drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 4-2 in favor of the Railsplitters.
 
The fifth inning passed without consequence, but Lenoir-Rhyne pulled to within one run in the top of the sixth on a solo home run off the bat of Vaughn. The Railsplitters erased that run in the bottom of the sixth, though, as Stucky plated Clark, who walked earlier in the inning, with a two-out single.
 
That would be the final hit of the game for the Railsplitters, though, as Lenoir-Rhyne scored four runs in the seventh and tacked on another in the ninth to end the contest on a 5-0 run.
 
Dishmond walked and Matthew De La Rosa doubled to put runners at second and third for the Bears in the seventh. Back-to-back wild pitches brought both of those runners home and knotted the game at 5-5 before Newcomer drove in the go-ahead run with a two-RBI double.
 
The Bears tallied their final run of the game in the ninth frame, when Marcus Shoemaker doubled and came across on a fielder's choice from Vaughn.
 
Game Two: Lincoln Memorial 11, Lenoir-Rhyne 2
 
Elliott followed up last weekend's complete-game shutout at Mars Hill with yet another complete-game gem, limiting Lenoir-Rhyne to just five hits and two runs while striking out two to improve to 8-1 on the season. In the process, Elliott became only the fourth pitcher in the history of the LMU baseball program to win eight games in a season and the first since Joe Workman went 9-5 in 2006. Elliott is just the second SAC pitcher to reach the eight-win mark alongside Tusculum ace Placido Torres.
 
The Railsplitters collected just six hits in the game, but took advantage of nine walks to pick up their 10th SAC win of the season.
 
Clark accounted for the biggest hit of the ballgame, breaking a 2-2 stalemate in the bottom of the fifth with a go-ahead grand slam, notching his fifth home run of the season. Clark finished 2 for 2 in the game with five RBI, two walks and two runs scored.
 
Sawyer went 1 for 3 with three RBI on a double, while Augustine drew three walks and scored a pair of runs. Stucky and Wes Neiderland (Thompson Station, Tenn.) also drove in runs for the Railsplitters.
 
Thomas St. Clair suffered the loss for Lenoir-Rhyne, falling to 1-3 on the season after allowing four hits and four earned runs with five walks over 4 1/3 innings of work. Will Thompson and Cole Fowler had RBI for the Bears.
 
Lincoln Memorial drew first blood, scoring a run in the bottom of the second after Neiderland reached on a catcher's interference and crossed home on a Stucky sacrifice fly out.
 
The Bears fought back to tie the game in the top of the third, though, when Newcomer doubled and scored on a sac fly by Fowler.
 
The Railsplitters and Bears traded runs again in the bottom of the third and top of the fourth, as Neiderland drove home Dillard, who led off with a single, with a single back up the middle. Thompson provided the game-tying run for the Bears in the fourth with an RBI groundout.
 
With the game still tied midway through the fifth, the Railsplitters sparked a rally in the home half of the fifth and took the lead for good. Augustine and Neiderland walked around a single by Eric Kalman (Brooklyn, N.Y.) to load the bases for Clark, who pummeled a grand slam over the wall in left field to put the Railsplitters ahead 6-2.
 
The Railsplitters would tack on five more runs in the bottom of the sixth thanks to some shaky pitching by the Bears. Lenoir-Rhyne walked four batters and hit another in the inning, allowing two runs to score before Sawyer cleared the bases with a three-run double to make it an 11-2 game.
 
Elliott hit a batter in the top of the seventh, but that was the extent of the damage done by the Bears.