Box Score Related: No. 20 Baseball Clinches Series At Young Harris
YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. – The 20th-ranked UNC Pembroke baseball team exploded for 11 hits and eight runs over the last four innings to help support a phenomenal outing from Andy Sullivan and complete a weekend sweep of Young Harris with an 8-0 shutout of the Mountain Lions on Sunday at Zell B. Miller Field.
The victory helped the Braves (17-5, 7-5 PBC) stretch their win streak out to six games, including four-straight away from Pembroke. The Mountain Lions (9-13, 1-8) fell to 0-6 all-time against the Black & Gold with the setback.
Daniel Fraga (3-for-4) singled three times and scored once to pace the visitors, while four other Braves recorded two or more hits in the outing as well. Ben Schmucker doubled and scored twice on a 2-for-4 tally, while Zade Denton drove in three runs on a 2-for-4 outing as well. Victor Zecca doubled in a pair of runs and scored once on a 2-for-5 showing. Jordan Edgerton turned in a 2-for-5 day at the plate.
Tom Valichka doubled to highlight a 3-for-4 outing for Young Harris who got seven of its 11 hits on the day from its 3-4-5 hitters in the order.
Andy Sullivan (3-0) scattered seven hits over six scoreless innings from the mound to grab the win for UNCP, while Zach Andrews hurled three scoreless innings in relief to pick up his fourth save of the year, as well as his third in five days. Reliever James Mills (2-2) took the tough-luck loss for the Mountain Lions despite surrendering just one run and four hits in two innings of work. He also struck out three.
Limited to just two hits and no runs through the first five innings of the contest, the visitors totaled three hits in three of the final four frames to seal the outcome. UNCP pushed across its first run of the game on Jordan Edgerton's one-out single in the sixth, and then finished out the game with three-straight multi-run innings.
Young Harris loaded the bases with its first four at-bats in the bottom of the sixth, but Sullivan got out of the jam by freezing Zach Wall on a called strike three, and then inducing Trey Rogers to fly out to left field. The hosts loaded the bases, again, with their first three at-bats in the eighth, but Andrews settled down and retired the next three Mountain Lions in order to erase any kind of scoring threat.
The Braves will close out a four-game road trip on Tuesday when they head to Misenheimer for a midweek bout with Pfeiffer (14-7) at Joe Ferebee Field. First pitch is set for 2:30 p.m.