Cleveland, TN - After starting the season with a sweep of Cedarville to improve to 3-0, the Lincoln Memorial baseball team suffered its first loss of the season on Wednesday in a road contest at Lee University.
The Flames took control in the first inning on a two run shot by Matthew Batts, driving in teammate Brandon Daniels to give Lee a 2-0 lead after one. The Railsplitters responded in the second inning when Colin Goda drove in
Ryan Kurth to cut the deficit to 2-1. Neither team found home plate in the third inning, leaving the Flames in control 2-1. In the bottom of the fourth, Lee added its second home run of the game, a two-run shot from Luke Collier, driving in teammate Brantley Cutler to take a 4-1 lead after four. However, Lincoln Memorial responded with three runs in the top of the fifth inning to knot the game at 4-4 as
Joey LaMattina drove in
Carson Boles,
Kasten Harvey, and
Cameron Bowen on a double to right-center. In the bottom of the seventh with the score knotted at 4-4, JJ Williams struck out swinging for the Flames, but reached first on a wild pitch, allowing Daniels to score, giving Lee the lead, 5-4. With the bases loaded, Collier was walked, allowing Batts to round home, giving Lee its final run of the game, and bringing the game to its final score, 6-4.
The Railsplitters were led by
Joey LaMattina with two hits and three RBI in five at-bats. He was followed by Colin Goda with two hits and one RBI,
Ryan Kurth with three hits in four at-bats,
Kasten Harvey with two hits, Cam Bowen with one hit,
Carson Boles with one hit, and DJ Alexander with one hit.
Payton Armour went for 4.0 IP with four hits, four runs, four earned runs, three walks, and five strikeouts, allowing two home runs.
Carter White went for 2.2 IP with two hits, two runs, two earned runs, two strikeouts and two walks.
Ethan Bobo went for 1.1 IP with zero hits, zero runs, zero earned runs, one walk, and one strikeout.
With the loss, Lincoln Memorial moved to 3-1 on the season. The Railsplitters will be back in action on the road at Lander this weekend with Friday's game slated for 5:00 PM.
