Box Score PADUCAH, Ky. - Lyon (Ark.) College used a seven-run second inning to build a big cushion that the Freed-Hardeman Lions could not overcome, as FHU's season ended with a 12-5 loss to the Scots in an elimination game at the TranSouth Conference tournament on Tuesday afternoon.
Freed-Hardeman's season ends at 33-24 under first-year head coach Jonathan Estes.
Robert Prieto led off game with a double down the left field line and came around to score on a two-out single by Labrada. Lyon answered in the bottom of the first after Cory Ford singled to lead off the inning and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Evan Segler.
Lyon loaded bases with no one out in bottom of second off of
Gage Franklin (4-5), but the freshman appeared to be on the verge of escaping the jam with one run as he retired the next two batters - one on a sacrifice fly - and had two strikes on Ford before he lined a triple into the left-center gap to score two more runs. Zac Wallace followed with a single to bring home Ford and end Franklin's day.
Trae Luttrell entered in relief but Lyon's bats stayed hot, ripping three straight hits off of the senior before he struck out Kody Pinson to get FHU out of the inning trailing 8-1.
The Scots added to their lead in the fourth inning with two more runs, all coming after
Charlie Overturf - who came into the game to start the third - retired the first two batters.
FHU got a run in the fifth on
Leamond Arthur's double, his team-high 20th of the year, down the right field line to score Prieto from first, but Arthur got caught in a rundown after trying to advance on the throw home to end the inning.
Lyon tacked on two more runs in the seventh on RBI hits by Ford and Wallace to take a 12-2 lead.
Scot starter Josh McNatt, meanwhile, stayed strong until late into the game, retiring seven straight batters from the sixth inning on until a Prieto singled to left in the eighth. Arthur followed with his second RBI double of the game. Bullard then delivered an RBI single to score courtesy runner
Blake Taylor, but McNatt locked down striking out
Noslen Labrada and getting
Evan Mansell to pop up to get out of the inning.
Freed-Hardeman added its final run of the season in the ninth inning on an RBI single by senior
Derek Bush in the final at-bat of his career.
Arthur finished one double shy of tying the program's single season record of 22, set by Pat O'Sullivan in 1998. Bullard finished his career as the program's all-time RBI leader with 188 and was two home runs away (32) from tying the career home run mark.
