FLORENCE, SC – The University of Mount Olive rallied from a two-run deficit in the eighth inning and then pushed across five runs in the ninth to capture a 13-8 victory over Francis Marion University, Tuesday evening (March 29) in non-conference baseball action.

The Patriots drop to 19-13 overall, while Mount Olive improves to 16-13.

Francis Marion opens a three-game Peach Belt Conference series with Georgia College on Friday at 6 p.m.  The squads will also play single games on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. with the entire weekend series being sponsored by Carolinas Hospital System.

With the scored tied at 8-8 in the top of ninth, FMU senior southpaw Matt Kelley (4-3) walked the first two batters he faced.  A single to right field then loaded the bases. Trojan third baseman Bradley Ragan plated the go-ahead run with an infield single behind the mound.  An infield error on the next batter allowed two more Trojans to cross home plate, followed by a RBI squeeze bunt by shortstop Alvin Swoope.  A throwing miscue on a two-out grounder allowed the fifth run to score.

Kelley was the fifth of seven Patriot hurlers to toe the rubber.

Mount Oliver righty Dario Santangelo (1-2) pitched 2.1 hitless and scoreless innings to earn the win.

Six Patriots registered two hits: sophomore shortstop Brooks Kennedy, junior third baseman Antonio Pino, senior first baseman Randy Loew, junior catcher Logan Koch, junior left fielder Chase Haas, and senior second baseman Cole Morris.  Both Kennedy and Morris drove in a pair of runs, with Kennedy also extending his hitting streak to 20 games.

The Trojans scored four times in the top of the third to go on top 4-0. The outburst consisted of an RBI single by catcher Brett Lang and a towering three-run homer to left by designated hitter Stephen Wallace.

FMU answered with four runs in the last of the fourth to knot the score. All tallies scored with two outs beginning with Haas's run-scoring single up the middle.  Morris plated two runs with a double just inside the third base bag and down the left field line, followed by the first of Kennedy's two run-scoring singles.

After Mount Olive regained the lead (5-4) in the top of the fifth, the Patriots quickly tied the contest in their half of the inning on bouncing RBI single up the middle by Koch.

A sacrifice fly by Swoope put the Trojans back on top 6-5 in the top of the sixth. Run-scoring singles by Crowe and Loew in the last of the sixth gave the Patriots their first lead of the see-saw contest at 7-6.

Kennedy stroked his second run-scoring single, this one through the right side, with one out in the seventh inning to add what looked to be an insurance run.

However, center fielder Zak Orrison's two-out two-run double in top of eighth again knotted the score, this time at 8-8.  FMU put the go-ahead run on second in the last of the frame, but Koch's tailing liner into left centerfield was nabbed by the Trojan left fielder.

Orrison robbed Haas of extra bases with a leaping catch in deep center field leading off the third inning.

Ragan and right fielder Nate Estes led the Trojans at the plate with three hits apiece.

FMU outhit Mount Olive 14-13, but Patriot pitchers issued six walks, four of which would eventually score.  Francis Marion stranded 10 runners on base.