Related: Shepherd Evens Up Weekend Series With Baseball

PEMBROKE – The UNC Pembroke baseball team erupted for nine runs in the first five innings to set the tone, and then held off a late-inning surge from defending Mountain East Conference champion Shepherd on the way to a series-clinching 11-6 win over the Rams on Sunday afternoon at Sammy Cox Field.

Stibel Aleman Saba singled in a run and scored once on a 3-for-5 outing for the Braves (2-1), who also got two hits apiece from three other players as well. Roberto Rivera stole two bases and drove in a pair of runs on a 2-for-3 hitting line, while Nick Salisbury (2-for-4) and Luke Jackson (2-for-5) produced a pair of hits as well.

Jacob Carney doubled twice and plated a pair of runs on a 2-for-4 showing for the Rams (1-2), while Brenton Doyle doubled on a 2-for-4 hitting line as well. Brandon Kirk (1-for-3) hit a 3-run homer for the visitors in the top of the sixth.

Jesse Stinnett (1-0) struck out five and scattered seven hits and three earned runs over six quality innings from the hill to pick up the win for UNCP. Ryan Simpson (0-1) took the loss for the Rams after yielding five runs (three earned) on three hits, a trio of walks and two hit batsmen in three innings of work.

The Black & Gold utilized a pair of Shepherd miscues to plate two runs in the bottom of the first inning, and then pushed the advantage out to three on a solo knock by Nick Debo in the second. The Braves led 9-0 after tacking up a trio of scores in the fifth, but Shepherd made a big dent in its deficit with five runs over the next three frames.

Run-scoring at-bats by Aleman Saba (RBI single) and Justin Dattilo in the eighth provided a pair of insurance runs.

The Braves will lift the lid on the road portion of their 2017 schedule on Tuesday when they head to Misenheimer for a 3 p.m. contest with Pfeiffer (0-1) at Joe Ferebee Field.