GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – Ethan Elliott delivered an outing for the ages to lead the Railsplitters to a 5-0 win over the Tusculum Pioneers in the opening game of a three-game South Atlantic Conference series on Friday night in Greeneville, Tenn. 
 
In a showdown against Tusculum's SAC Pitcher of the Year candidate Charles Hall, Elliott came out on top in decisive fashion, going the distance in a complete-game shutout while striking out 16 batters. The senior lefty allowed only four singles without issuing a walk while retiring the last 15 batters he faced to move to 9-2 on the season. 
 
The LMU offense did its part as well, accumulating nine hits in the contest, including eight hits and three runs off Hall, who finished with 10 strikeouts and four walks to fall to 6-2 on the season. 
 
Marco Rios led the Railsplitters (29-12, 16-3 SAC) by going 3-for-4 at the plate with a run scored, while Nate Stinson and Brent Richey added two hits apiece. Chris Salvey drove in two runs, while Dalton Dedas also chipped in a hit. 
 
Tusculum (26-17, 13-6 SAC) was paced by Garrett Dupuis, who contributed two hits. Nate Montgomery and Zack Finchum added the only other hits of the game for the Pioneers. 
 
Elliott struck out all nine starters for the Pioneers at least once, including three strikeouts of two-hole hitter Bryson Ford and cleanup hitter Trey Hinton. Three other Tusculum hitters fanned twice. 
 
The first two innings passed inconsequentially, but the Railsplitters got on the board in the top of the third frame, as Rios led off with a single, Seth Hunt was hit by a pitch and Tyler Adams walked to load the bases for Salvey, who punched a two-run single through the left side of the infield. 
 
Neither side managed to get a runner to third base again until the Railsplitters struck up a rally in the top of the seventh. Dedas led off with a single and moved to third following back-to-back groundouts. From there, he scored off Stinson's single back up the middle to increase the lead to 3-0. 
 
Lincoln Memorial then pushed two more runs across in the top of the ninth to ice the game. Hunt and Adams walked around a throwing error to load the bases with no outs. After back-to-back strikeouts, Richey singled in a run while Joe Stucky drew a bases-loaded walk to reach the final score of 5-0. 
 
The Railsplitters defeated the Pioneers for the fourth consecutive time while remaining within a game of first-place Newberry, who took the series opener against Catawba on Friday night to improve to 17-2 in SAC play. 
 
Lincoln Memorial and Tusculum will complete their series with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. back in Greeneville.