A pinch-hit double by Jake Huggins broke a 3-3 tie and sent the VMI Keydets past the Mercer Bears, 4-3, in SoCon baseball action Saturday in Macon, Ga. The game was the second of a doubleheader, after Mercer had won game one, 10-6.
Mercer (21-15, 7-4 SoCon) led for the first seven innings and held a 3-0 lead headed to the eighth, when the Keydets (17-22, 2-9 SoCon) tied the game, 3-3. Peyton Maddox reached on a two-base error by the left fielder and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Tyler Tharp.
Lefty Austin Lord relieved and Jonathan Hadra countered with Huggins to pinch-hit. The freshman doubled to center field to score Maddox and give the Keydets the lead. Taylor Edens pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close the game out.
Josh Winder pitched into the eighth inning, as he allowed three runs on six hits over 7 1/3 innings. Edens (1-4) pitched the final 1 2/3 innings and did not allow a hit to get the victory. Taylor Lobus (2-3), the fourth of six Mercer relievers, allowed two runs – one earned – in 2/3 of an inning to take the loss.
The Keydets and Bears matched zeros until the sixth, when Kyle Lewis homered to put the home team up, 1-0. Jackson Ware followed with a two-run shot in the seventh to make it a 3-0 game.
The Keydets rallied in the eighth, when Collin Fleischer doubled home two runs to cut it to 3-2. Fleischer was thrown out trying to stretchthe two-bagger to a triple, but the next hitter, Matt Pita, homered to tie the game, 3-3. That set the stage for the ninth-inning rally.
Offensively, Nathan Eaton had VMI’s lone two-hit game, while catcher Charlie Madden went 2 for 4 for Mercer.
VMI baseball will return to action Sunday, when the Keydets and Mercer wrap up their series at 1 p.m.
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