GREENWOOD – The Lander baseball team claimed its biggest win of the season Tuesday afternoon when the Bearcats defeated Brevard College, 13-3, in a non-conference game at Dolny Stadium.
In winning its fifth straight game, Lander improves to 8-4 overall, while the Tornados, who committed five errors, drop to 4-6. In all, Lander played 22 players.
Brandon Miller (2-0) earned the win on the mound after striking out five, walking one and allowing one earned run on five hits in five complete innings.
Brevard's Casey Smith (0-1) took the loss after striking out three, walking one and allowing three earned runs on four hits in 2.2 innings pitched.
Lander grabbed a 3-0 lead in the third inning when Patrick Grady's RBI single plated Colby Painter and Jordan Owens picked up two RBI when his single to deep right field scored Erik Lunde and Patrick Grady.
The Bearcats took advantage of four fourth-inning errors by the Tornados to stretch the lead to 7-0. With bases loaded and no outs, Jeff May scored on a fielder's choice, then AJ Nunziato's single to deep centerfield, combined with a fielding error, plated Juan Montana, Painter and Lunde.
Brevard cut the lead to 7-1 in the fifth when Cody Queen singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch, to third on another wild pitch and scored on Randy O'Dell's RBI single to centerfield.
The Bearcats came back in the bottom of the inning and made it 10-1 when they again loaded the bases with no outs. Nunziato's RBI single plated Juan Montana, Painter scored on Grady's sacrifice fly and Ian Harvey's sacrifice fly sent Lunde home.
Lander tallied three more runs in the sixth to stretch the margin to 13-1 on RBI singles by Lunde, Nunziato and Kevin Childs.
Brevard scored the game's final two runs in the ninth on Champ Stuart's two-RBI double to centerfield.
For Lander, Painter batted 2-for-2 with one double and four runs scored, Nunziato went 3-for-5 with four RBI and Owens 2-for-3 with two RBI.
For Brevard, Terron Robinson (2-for-4) and Champ Stuart (1-for-1, two RBI) both doubled. Cody Queen batted 2-for-4 with one run scored.
