Bears still in chase to finish in top 8 of SAC, make conference tournament
HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – Wingate University swept a three-game baseball series over Lenoir-Rhyne University, beating the Bears 11-4 on Monday night in the series finale.
LRU (21-24, 7-14 South Atlantic Conference) played its third straight game without head coach Tom Fleenor, who has been placed on paid administrative leave.
LRU SCHEDULE, RESULTS: https://lrbears.com/schedule.aspx?path=baseball
SAC BASEBALL STANDINGS (through Monday): https://www.thesac.com/sports/bsb/2018-19/standings
FRANK
Assistant coach Chaz Frank is guiding the Bears, who play at home Wednesday at 6 p.m. against Limestone.
LRU, on a five-game wins streak as it entered the series against Wingate, is tied with Coker for seventh place in the SAC.
The top eight teams advance to the conference tournament on April 25-29 in Kodak, Tenn.
Wingate improved to 28-15, 12-9.
The Bears will play their final league series Friday and Saturday (doubleheader) at Tusculum and close the regular season next Tuesday with a non-league home game against Erskine.
Wingate 11, LRU 4 (Monday)
A five-run fifth inning helped the Bulldogs win.
LRU had eight hits, two each by Clayton Jeffries and Alex Reynolds, and Matthew Freeman hit a three-run home run and E.J. Ranel had a solo shot for the Bears.
Ranel has hit safely in seven straight games.
Jake Conroy, making his final start at Bears Field, took the loss. He went four innings, giving up seven hits, four runs, walking two and striking out two.
Justin Guy went 4-for-6 as the leadoff batter for Wingate, and Jed Bryant hit a three-run home run.
LRU fell to 7-16 at home this season and was swept in a series for the fourth time in league play and fifth time overall this season.
Wingate 4, LRU 2 (Saturday)
The Bulldogs got the outs they needed in the sixth inning to leave two Bears stranded.
Hunter Jackson had two of LRU’s six hits and drove in a run while Will Jones also collected an RBI.
Paul Hall went six innings, giving up seven hits and three earned runs and struck out five as LRU’s starting pitcher.
Alex Rodriguez was the winning pitcher for Wingate and Sawyer Lee threw two innings to get his first save of the season.
Wingate 3, LRU 1 (Saturday)
Grant Fuller had two hits for the Bears in a loss to open the conference series and Jeffries had LRU’s only RBI.
Alex Shirazi threw a career-best eight innings for LRU, working into the ninth inning and leaving to a standing ovation. He scattered six hits, giving up three runs (two earned) and striking out eight.
Wingate’s David Nash picked up his second win of the year, giving up one run on four hits over eight innings.
Hunter Dula got the last three outs for Wingate to gain his fifth save.
Wingate had seven hits, led by Jed Bryant with two and have drove in two runs.