TIGERVILLE, S.C. – Offense continued to elude the Railsplitters on Friday night as the top-seeded North Greenville Crusaders rolled to a 7-0 victory over Lincoln Memorial to move one win away from a spot in the Southeast Super Regional series. 
 
The Railsplitters (34-18) mustered just five hits total off the North Greenville (44-9) duo of Tucker Burgess and Brent Herlong. Burgess – the D2CCA Southeast Region Pitcher of the Year – surrendered only four hits and walked four while striking out 10 to move to 13-2 on the season, while Herlong was even more impressive, giving up only one hit and no walks while striking out two over the final two innings to secure his second save of the year.
 
North Greenville extended its winning streak to 13 games after opening the day with a hard-fought 4-3 win over Mount Olive before taking down the Railsplitters, who fall to 2-5 in their last seven games in defeat.  
 
The loss puts Lincoln Memorial's backs squarely against the wall. On Saturday, the Railsplitters and Crusaders will meet up again at 4 p.m. If North Greenville wins, they move on to the Southeast Super Regional game, while Lincoln Memorial would be eliminated. If the Railsplitters win, the two teams will turn right back around at 8 p.m. to play a winner-take-all game to decide who advances to the Super Regional. 
 
No LMU player finished with more than one hit in the game, while all five LMU hits were singles. Seth Hunt had one of those singles and drew a walk, as did Dalton Dedas. Henry Moore, Brent Richey and Zuriel Collins accounted for the other three hits for the 'Splitters. 
 
Eight different players struck out in the game for Lincoln Memorial, including four with multiple strikeouts. 
 
The Crusaders wasted little time jumping all over the Railsplitters, scoring two runs in the first and three more in the second before tacking on runs in the fourth and fifth frames. 
 
In the first, Utah Jones drew a one-out walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out double from Adam Sasser. In the next at-bat, Sasser scored from second on a dropped fly ball by LMU third baseman Alex Allen, the first of three errors in the contest for the Railsplitters. 
 
North Greenville then used five hits and another LMU error to hang three more runs on the board in the second. Josh Senter led off with a double, which was followed by a bunt-single from Jack Morris. Jeremy Whitehead followed that up with an RBI single to right field, which was misplayed by Richey to allow Morris to score on the play as well. John Michael Faile then drove home the third run of the inning with a single through the left side of the infield to make it a 5-0 game. 
 
Lincoln Memorial threatened for the first time in the game in the bottom of the second inning when Hunt sparked a two-out rally with a single. Dedas and Chris Salvey followed with walks, but Nate Stinson struck out to strand the bases loaded. 
 
The Crusaders then added to their lead in the top of the fourth as a throwing error put Sasser on base with one out and he eventually scored on a sac fly from Lex Tuten to extend the lead to 6-0. 
 
The lead would grow to 7-0 in the fifth when North Greenville pushed the final run of the game across via a wild pitch. Senter scored on the play after leading off with a single, stealing second and moving to third on a wild pitch. 
 
The Railsplitters threatened for the final time in the bottom half of the fifth as Collins singled, Hunt walked and Moore singled to load the bases with one out. However, a foul out and a groundout again kept LMU from pushing a run across the dish. 
 
After that, the two teams combined for just one hit and one baserunner over the final four frames, and that came via Richey's one-out single in the bottom of the ninth, which did not amount to a run for the Railsplitters. 
 
Senior right-hander Matt Mullenbach endured a rough outing for the 'Splitters, falling to 3-6 on the season after serving up nine hits, seven runs (five earned), four walks and five wild pitches. He struck out five before giving way to Jake Grenus down the closing stretch. Grenus did not allow a hit or a baserunner over four innings of work, striking out four.