ERIE, PA – The No. 6 Seed Golden Eagles made work of the Mercyhurst defense scoring 10 runs on 17 hits. Charleston now leads the series 1-0, and is set to face the No. 5 Seed again tomorrow.

THE BASICS
GAME SCORE– UC 10, Mercyhurst 2
LOCATION – Erie, Pa. – Hurst Baseball Field
RECORDS— Charleston (41-17), Mercyhurst (32-14)
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Every Golden Eagle in the lineup notched a hit in the victroy, led by two 2-for-5 performances from senior second basemen, Gianfranco Morello, and senior short stop, Derek Dudek. Four other Golden Eagles had a multi-hit game.

Dudek, Morello, and Colby Johnson each had two RBI to lead UC, while three other Golden Eagles tallied an RBI for the UC offense.

Austin Henrich earned his eighth win of the season, pitching 9.0 innings, allowing two runs on three hits, notching a career high 10 strikeouts.

With two runners on in the top of the first Morello knocked a single to right field allowing Austin Hathaway to score giving the Golden Eagles the early lead. A pair of Laker errors allowed two more runs to score, giving UC the 3-0 lead after the top of the first.

Austin Hathaway got the scoring started with a sacrifice to right center that would bring in Jesse Elliot for the 1-0 lead in the top of the third. Gianfranco Morello and Colby Johnson each knocked in a run in the inning to give UC the three-run advantage.
 
Charleston tacked on two more runs in the fourth and fifth inning taking the 5-0 lead before going on a 5-run mission in the top of the sixth to extend their lead to 10-0.


The Lakers scored on a pair of solo homeruns from Matthew Schnieder and Josh Surowiec in the seventh and ninth inning to bring the final score to 10-2 in favor of the Golden Birds.
 
Matthew Minnick took the loss for the Lakers after 5.1 innings of work, the starter allowed 10 runs on 13 hits before passing the ball off to Jared Kapturasky in relief.


UP NEXT
Charleston will face the Lakers again on Saturday, May 25. First pitch is set for 11:00 a.m.