FLORENCE – The No. 7-ranked Lander baseball team equaled its best start in the 16-year history of the program Saturday afternoon when the Bearcats split a Peach Belt Conference doubleheader with Francis Marion at Sparrow Stadium. FMU won the first game, 3-1, and the Bearcats took the second, 9-2.

Lander, which equals a 17-4 start with both the 2004 and 2005 teams, moves to 10-2 in the PBC, while FMU is 9-7 overall and 5-4 in the PBC.

In the second game, Lander's Logan Pemberton earned the win, striking out two and allowing two earned runs on four hits in six innings.

FMU's Don Sandifer (2-3) took the loss, striking out two, walking one and allowing two earned runs on four hits in six innings.

Lander built up a 3-0 lead in the second inning on a two-RBI double by Jeff May and a run-scoring triple from Graham Ramos, then stretched the margin to 4-0 in the fourth on Ian Harvey's sacrifice fly.

FMU cut the Lander lead to 4-2 in the fourth on Will Chandler's two-run home run.

The Bearcats then added four more runs in the fifth inning on a Connor Lewis sacrifice fly, and RBI singles by Weston Lawing, May and Chris Hyatt. Lander scored its final run in the sixth inning on Lawing's sacrifice fly.

For Lander, Grady and May batted 2-for-3, while Colby Painter and Hyatt went 2-for-5.

Stephen Tarkenton had two hits for FMU.

In the first game, the Patriots Jeffrey Stoner (3-0) was awarded the win after striking out 12, walking three and giving up just two hits in the complete nine innings.

Chess Malone (4-1) suffered his first loss of the season, striking out three, walking one and allowing three earned runs on nine hits in eight innings.

FMU took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a Jarrod Reed ground out, but Lander came back to tie the game at 1-all in the fourth inning when Patrick Grady scored on a passed ball.

The Patriots then scored one run each in the sixth and seventh innings on RBI singles by Will Chandler and Michael Wilson.