HARROGATE, Tenn. – The Lincoln Memorial University baseball team opened its season-opening series with a 21-6 rout of Mars Hill (21-24-1, 10-15 SAC) Friday evening at Lamar Hennon Field. The Railsplitters (29-18, 13-12 SAC) collected 22 hits and scored in all but one inning.
 
Timmy Wages notched four hits, including a pair of doubles, and drove in two. Seth Hunt and Will Reddick finished 3-for-6 with four runs scored. Reddick homered, added three RBI and stole two bases. Tyler Adams also homered and drove in four runs, walked three times and stole two bases. Chris Salvey singled three times while three other Railsplitters recorded two hits apiece, including Mason Ewers, who went deep and drove in three runs.
 
Ethan Elliott wasn't at his sharpest with six runs allowed—five earned—in 5.2 innings but still struck out 10 and improved his record to 7-3. His seventh punchout of the game gave him 103 for the year to set a new single-season program record. The lefty surrendered eight hits and three walks and departed after 132 pitches.
 
The Lions tallied 11 hits. Matt Honeycutt finished a double shy of the cycle with two RBI and runs scored. Brett Brubaker also had two hits while Cody Cline drove in two.
 
Alec Bivins was tagged for seven runs—though only three were earned—in three-plus innings to take the loss and fall to 3-3. Four relievers combined to give up 14 runs over the final five frames.
 
Honeycutt's first-inning home run put Mars Hill up 1-0, but the Railsplitters plated a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning on a sac fly and error to take the lead. A Nate Stinson groundout in third made the score 3-1.
 
Mars Hill re-took the lead at 4-3 after scoring three runs on a bases-loaded single in the top of the fourth. LMU answered with a seven-run bottom half to take the lead for good. Adams' three-run shot broke a 4-4 tie, and Ewers later went deep to make the score 10-4. 
 
The Lions plated a run in the fifth on a sac fly. The Railsplitters again answered back with a Wages RBI single.
 
Honeycutt's RBI single gave the Lions another run in the top of the sixth. LMU then exploded for seven more runs in the bottom half. Nine straight Railsplitters reached before the first out was recorded. 
 
Reddick homered to lead off the seventh. LMU scored its final two runs in the eighth.
 
The two teams conclude their regular seasons with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.