February 11, 2023

by Dustin Semore, FHU Sports Information Director

HENDERSON, Tenn. — A pitcher's duel in Saturday's first game of a doubleheader needed an extra frame to determine a winner. Sean Rooney's RBI single in the bottom of the ninth propelled the (RV) Freed-Hardeman University Lions to a 2-1 victory over the University of Saint Francis (Ind.) Cougars.

Zach Sanders led off the Lions' (6-3) half of the first inning by being hit by a pitch before Brady Spring's single moved Sanders to scoring position. A groundout to short ended the early threat.

USF (0-3) sent out their ace to the hill, who promptly sat down the FHU Lions in the bottom of the second in order including a pair of punchouts.

Alex Huey (0-1) answered with a 1-2-3 inning of his own, striking out a pair of Cougars: two of his seven punchouts in the no-decision.

Scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning, Mason Libla put the Lions on the board with a home run (3) to right, giving the senior his sixth RBI of the season. Huey found himself in a jam in the top of the sixth frame. After striking out two Cougars, the visitors drew a walk before a single planted runners on the corners before a stolen base put the go-ahead run into scoring position. Continuing his dominant turn on the hill, the southpaw struck out his seventh batter of the day to strand the runners.

Huey now finds himself inching ever closer to the Freed-Hardeman career strikeout record with his 319 career punchouts placing him four short of breaking Josh Hester's 322 strikeout benchmark.

Down to their final out of the day's first game, the Cougars sent a moonshot over the right field fence to knot affairs at 1-1 to force the Lions to bat in the bottom of the ninth, where FHU went down in order to move into extra innings.

After Nolan Wells sat USF down in order, Sanders reached first on a throwing error by the Cougars, moving into scoring position on Will McCall's groundout. Then stepped up Sean Rooney who saved his game's lone hit until the most opportune time by perfectly placing a single into right field, allowing the speedy Sanders to wrap around and score to walk off the Cougars 2-1.

Huey struck out seven Cougars in his six innings of work, allowing just two Saint Francis hits. Wells (1-0) earned the victory in relief, punching out five in four innings.

The Lions had seven different hitters tally hits in the victory with Mason Libla and Sean Rooney's base knocks driving in FHU's runs.