AIKEN, S.C. -- USC Aiken's pitching staff held Lincoln Memorial's offense to just two hits and Mitchell Price hit a three-run home run to lead the Pacers (1-0) past the Railsplitters (0-1) 9-0 in Friday's season opener at Roberto Hernandez Stadium. With the loss, Lincoln Memorial has dropped its past six season openers—all to the Pacers.
Four different Pacer pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts in the shutout. Connor Riley made the start and allowed just one hit and two walks in five innings. His seven strikeouts were a career high.
Freshman
Nate Stinson (Jonesboro, Ga.) led off the game for the Lincoln Memorial with a single for his first career hit, but Riley settled in to retire the next 13 Railsplitters he faced.
In a pitching rematch of an 8-2 Lincoln Memorial victory from last season, sophomore Ethan Elliot (Knoxville, Tenn.) made the start for the Railsplitters. He allowed three runs (two earned) in five innings of work, striking out four. The Pacers scattered eight hits off the lefty—all singles.
USC-Aiken scratched across one run apiece in the second, third and fourth innings. The Pacers used three singles in the second to strike first, capped off with an RBI from Skylar Mercado. The first two Pacers singled in the third before Elliot bounced back to strike out the next two. He should have gotten Price to end the inning unscathed but made a throwing error, which allowed another run to score. A two-out walk followed by two more singles expanded USC-Aiken's lead to 3-0.
Logan Augustine (Urbandale, Iowa) mustered Lincoln Memorial's only other hit, a single to right, in the top half of the sixth.
Chase Randolph (Harriman, Tenn.) replaced Elliot in the bottom of the sixth and allowed a walk and two singles to load the bases for Luke Westerberg, who flew out to center field to score another run. The next batter, Price, took Randolph deep to plate three more runs and blow the game wide open at 7-0.
The Pacers added two more runs to their lead in the bottom of the eighth on back-to-back RBI doubles.
First pitch for game two of the three-game series is set for 2 p.m. Saturday back at Roberto Hernandez Stadium.
