University of Mount Olive opened the night celebrating the men's basketball team's regional championship, but the celebration was short-lived as the nationally 14th-ranked Trojans fell to No. 7 Franklin Pierce University 10-1 in non-conference baseball Wednesday at Scarborough Field. The two teams finished with a split in their two-game series.
Prior to the game, a ceremony was held honoring the Trojan men's basketball team, which had just arrived back on campus after winning the 2015 NCAA Division II Southeast Regional and clinching a spot in the Elite Eight. Head men's basketball coach Joey Higginbotham threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Mount Olive (19-7) trailed 8-0 before getting on the scoreboard in the bottom of the seventh. Kilgore Gailmard led off with a single and advanced to third on Tyler Farmer's single. Gailmard scored on a wild pitch to break up the shutout.
Franklin Pierce (17-1) scored two runs in the top of the second inning and added three runs in the third on back-to-back home runs by Jay Jabs and John Razzino. Jabs added a leadoff home run in a three-run fifth inning.
Franklin Pierce starter Mike Lundin (4-0) tossed a complete game six-hitter, striking out 10 and walking none. Lundin entered the game with 35 strikeouts, no walks, three hits and no runs allowed in 23 innings.
Mount Olive resumes Conference Carolinas action this weekend as the Trojans travel to Bristol, Tenn., to take on King in a three-game series. The two teams play a single game Friday at 2:30 p.m., then conclude the series with a doubleheader Saturday beginning at noon.