PEMBROKE – Visiting Francis Marion broke a 10-10 tie on J.D. Crowe's 2-run homer in the top of the seventh inning and the Patriots got just enough pitching to top the 30th-ranked UNC Pembroke baseball team, 17-12, in the series opener on Friday evening at Sammy Cox Field.

The squads combined for 395 pitches, 39 hits, eight walks, and four hit batsmen in the marathon outing that nearly touched the 4-hour mark. The sides will continue the series with a single game on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Nolan Pierce walked, doubled and homered to highlight a perfect 4-for-4 night at the plate, while Dalton Knight (3-for-5), Drew Beaver (3-for-5, 2 R) and Wiley Jackson (3-for-5, RBI) all registered a trio of hits for the Braves (27-10, 13-9 PBC).

Crowe walked, doubled, homered and drove in four runs on a 4-for-6 hitting line for the Patriots (24-12, 12-8), while Randy Loew hit a pair of doubles and scored three times on a 4-for-6 performance as well.

Logan Cook (5-3) yielded seven earned runs on as many hits in 3-2/3 innings of relief to take the loss for UNCP. FMU reliever Jimmy Lindberg (2-0) allowed six runs (five earned) on 12 hits and a walk in 5-1/3 innings from the hill, but still managed to pick up the win for the visitors.

Zade Denton's two-out triple in the bottom of the second inning helped the hosts stake claim to an early 6-1 lead, but the Patriots crossed the plate four times in both the third and fourth innings and took a 9-7 lead into the fifth. The visitors padded their lead out to 10-7 on a RBI double by Loew in the sixth, but the Braves scored three times in the bottom of the frame to knot things back up.

Crowe's four-bagger in the seventh gave Francis Marion a lead it would not relinquish, but the Patriots added five insurance runs in the eighth. Pierce's 2-run homer in the bottom of the eighth would cap the scoring on the night.