University of Mount Olive took the series finale against Florida Southern 6-4 Sunday afternoon at Scarborough Field in non-conference baseball in Mount Olive, N.C. Zak Orrison led the offense with three RBI and went 2-4.
Mount Olive (4-3) went down early as Florida Southern (8-3) came out swinging with one away in the top of the first. Sam Machonis singled up the middle for the Mocs first base hit. Mitch Reeves moved Machonis up to second with a base hit. Jason Sierra drew a walk to load the bases for Dominic Brognoni.
Brognoni drove in the game's first runs with a double to the left field wall. Reeves and Machonis scored and Sierra was tagged out at third on the play for the second out in the inning. A strikeout ended the Florida Southern threat in the first.
It took Mount Olive until the third inning to get the bats swinging as Alvin swoop doubled down the left field line with one away. Orrison tied the game up with a home run over the left field wall and the game was knotted up at two heading into the fourth.
Florida Southern broke the tie with an RBI single in the top of the fourth, however Mount Olive did not allow the 3-2 lead to stand. Derek Deler led off the bottom half with a single into right and was followed up by Stephen Wallace's double into right moving both runners to third and second respectively.
Duke Hill drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly to left. Grant Tyndall singled home Wallace with a base hit into left center. Swoop reached on an error and Tyndall advanced to third. Orrison picked up his second RBI with a groundout to short as Tyndall came in. David Mayo rounded out the Trojans fourth with a RBI-single through the left side and scored Swoop to give Mount Olive a 6-3 lead.
The Mocs drove across a solo run in the sixth off an Evan Barnes RBI single down the left field line. Florida Southern however threatened to tie the game in the eighth.
After back-to-back strikeouts Barnes drew a walk. Walker Burgess came in to pinch hit and quickly got on base with a double and Florida Southern had runners at second and third. Dario Santangelo however, shut the door as a strikeout ended the threat.
Mount Olive retired the side in order in the top of the ninth and took the final game of the three game series after losing a doubleheader on Saturday to Florida Southern.
The Trojans were defeated in game one 14-3 and 7-0 in game two on Saturday.
Austin Hutchinson (2-0) picked up the win as he went five complete and allowed three runs off six hits and struck out five. Santangelo (1) was credited with his first save of the season as he finished out the game and allowed one run off four hits and struck out seven.
Mount Olive will return to Scarborough Field Friday as the Trojans open up Conference Carolinas play against Pfeiffer University. First pitch for game one of the series is set for 3 p.m.