SAVANNAH, Ga. – The No. 10 Lander baseball team split a Peach Belt Conference doubleheader with No. 21 Armstrong Atlantic State University Saturday afternoon when the Bearcats won the first game, 13-5, and dropped the nightcap, 8-5, at Pirate Field.

The Bearcats move to 34-13 overall and 19-10 in the PBC, while Armstrong goes to 30-13, 18-10. The third and final game of the series will be played at 1 p.m. Sunday.

In the first game, Dylan Wolchick (9-1) earned the win after striking out two and allowing four earned runs on 11 hits in seven innings pitched.

AASU's Tyler Green (1-2) suffered the loss, striking out one and allowing five earned runs on eight hits in 2.2 inings on the mound.

Lander took a 3-0 lead in the second inning after Chris Hyatt's sacrifice fly sent Jeff May home, Chris Wilson tripled in Weston Lawing and Erik Lunde's RBI double plated Wilson.

The Bearcats extended the lead to 8-0 in the fifth when Patrick Grady and Connor Lewis scored on back-to-back sacrifice flies by May and Lawing, Hyatt drove in May, and Lunde's RBI double plated Hyatt and Colby Painter.

The Pirates cut the lead to 8-1 in the fifth, when with bases loaded and no outs, Joey Lupus' RBI single plated Clayton Miller.

Lander went back up by eight runs at 9-1 in the sixth on May's RBI double the scored Graham Ramos.

Armstrong loaded the bases in the seventh and trimmed Lander's lead to 9-4 when Chris Fritts' RBI single drove in Cody Sherlin and Chris Zittrouer, then Will Thomas scored on a Lander fielding error.

The Pirates added another run in the eighth as Miller scored on Zittrouer's RBI double.

Lander exploded for four more runs in the ninth when Painter smacked a solo homer, Hyatt scored on a dropped fly ball, Adam Davey went home on Grady's sacrifice fly and Lewis drove in Ramos.

For Lander, May batted 4-for-5, Lunde 3-for-5, Hyatt 2-for-3, Lawing 2-for-5 and Lewis 2-for-6.

For AASU, Miller, Zittrouer, Sherlin and Lupus all had two hits each.

In the second game, Ethan Bader (8-0) remained unbeaten after striking out four, walking thre and allowing five earned runs on 12 hits in seven innings pitched.

Lander's Ryan Jones (1-2) took the loss after striking out three, walking one and allowing two earned runs on five hits in two innings.

The Bearcats moved out to a 3-0 lead on Ramos' solo homer in the first inning and RBI singles in the second inning by Painter and Jacob Tisdale that scored May and Painter.

Armstrong rallied to tie the game at 3-all on RBI singles by Sherlin and Thomas in the second inning and Miller's in the third.

May led off the fourth inning with a solo homer to give Lander a 4-3 advantage.

The Pirates took a 5-4 lead in the sixth when Sherlin and Miller scored on a pair of Lander errors. Then, with bases loaded in the seventh, AASU went up 8-4 when Zittrouer drove in Chase Butler, Sherlin doubled in R.J. Dennard, and Zittrouer advanced home on a groundout.

The Bearcats cut the Pirate lead to 8-5 in the eighth after Lewis' sacrifice fly plated Ramos.

For Lander, Grady batted 4-for-4, May 3-for-4 and Ramos 2-for-3.

For AASU, Sherlin went 3-for-4, Butler 3-for-5 and Miller 2-for-3.