GREENWOOD – Bud Lanier and Jordan Owens each had home runs Tuesday afternoon to lead the Lander baseball team to a 13-10 non-conference victory over Bloomsburg University at Legion Field.
Lander improves to 13-5 overall, while the Huskies slip to 4-11.
The Bearcats’ Brantley Blalock (1-0) earned the win as he struck out three, walked two and allowed one earned run on one hit in 1.1 innings pitched.
Bloomsburg’s Tyler Gansner (0-1) took the loss as he struck out three, walked five and allowed four earned runs on three hits in four innings pitched.
Lander took a 1-0 lead in the first inning by taking advantage of the Huskies’ first error. Alan Abreu walked then scored from first on a throwing error by pitcher Mike Rossetti on a pickoff attempt.
The Huskies came back to take a 2-1 lead in the second on Gino Wise’s two-RBI double.
Lander regained the lead at 3-2 in the bottom of the inning. Owens and Devin Ridlehoover led off with singles – Owens scored on Joe Tebaldi’s sacrifice fly and Ridlehoover went home on Abeu’s RBI single.
Owens’ two-run homer gave Lander a 5-2 lead in the third and Lanier’s three-run shot in the fourth stretched the margin to 8-2.
Bloomsburg tied the game at 8-8 in the six-run, fifth inning when Joey Ianiero scored from third on a Lander error, Tony Donofry went home on a wild pitch, Eric Ebert’s RBI single plated Jerry Lloyd, Seth Pauling scored on another Lander error and Devin McLaughlin stroked a two-RBI single.
Lanier’s two-RBI single in the fifth scored Hunter Dowis and Abreu then Robert Skinner scored on a Bloomsburg error to give Lander an 11-8 lead.
Ebert’s RBI-double scored Pauling in the sixth to trim the Bearcats’ lead to 11-9.
Hernandez’s groundout plated Abreu and Owens singled in Lanier to give Lander a 13-9 lead in the seventh.
Bloomsburg’s Gino Wise scored the team’s final run in the ninth when he advanced from third on a wild pitch.
For Lander, Abreu went 3-for-4 with four runs scored and one RBI, while Owens batted 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI. Lanier hit 2-for-2 with two runs and five RBI.
For Bloomsburg, Ianiero, Lloyd, Ebert, Wise and McLaughlin all collected two hits.
