HENDERSON, Tenn. - The Freed-Hardeman Lions were two outs away from picking up an important conference win in the opening game of a weekend series with Bethel (Tenn.) University.

One swing of Lance Jerrald's bat changed that.

Jerrald's one-out single in the top of the ninth drove in the tying run, and the Wildcats stayed perfect in TranSouth play with a 7-4 win over No. 17 Freed-Hardeman in 10 innings.

The loss for FHU means that the Lions must win its remaining five conference contests, including two with Bethel tomorrow, in order to repeat as TranSouth champions.

Freed-Hardeman (36-7-1, 5-2) was in control early, building a 4-0 lead on the strength of Joe Mike's two-run single in the first and Garrett Ferguson's two-run double in the third.

But Bethel starter Blake Chandler settled down and held the Lions scoreless until he gave way to Keaton Gregory in the eighth. Gregory and Ryne Fisher did the rest, keeping FHU off the scoreboard while the offense rallied.

Freed-Hardeman's Chris Hatfield held the Wildcats scoreless until the sixth when an error by Connor Kohlscheen put Jerrald on base to start the inning. Jerrald eventually came around to score as did Michael Brasil to cut the Lions' lead in half.

The Wildcats scored one in the top of the eighth inning, and Gregory got the final out in the bottom half after back-to-back singles by Bobby Seda and Ferguson ended the day for Chandler.

After Hatfield hit Brian Ferrell with a pitch to lead off the ninth, Drew Suttles entered to try to close the game. A sacrifice bunt moved Ferrell to second, and Jerrald's single brought him in as the tying run.

Suttles retired the next two batters he faced, but the Lions went in order in the ninth to send the game to extra innings.

Bethel then scored three times in the 10th and while the Lions were able to send the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the inning, they couldn't send any runners across the plate as Fisher closed the game.

Both teams were equal in hits with 10 apiece and also drew three walks, but FHU made three errors and hit three batters. Seda had three hits while Mike and Ferguson both had two. Justin Mackey also extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a single in his first at-bat. Hatfield took a no-decision while Suttles (3-1) took the loss.

The series concludes tomorrow at noon with a pair of must-win games for the Lions. Left-handers Dan Creighton (7-0, 1.61 ERA) and Ryan Wood (5-1, 1.76 ERA) are the projected starters on the mound for FHU.