FRANKLIN SPRINGS, GA – Junior right-handed pitcher Eze Rojas delivered a quality 7.0-inning start on Friday evening, as No. 14-ranked Francis Marion University rallied by scoring eight unanswered runs to secure a 10-4 victory at Emmanuel University in Game 1 of the Conference Carolinas baseball series.

Francis Marion (22-6, 13-3) continues the three-game series with the Lions tomorrow, Saturday, March 21, with a doubleheader scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

Rojas yielded four runs (three earned) on three hits while fanning seven and issuing three walks (94 pitches). He retired the side in order three times while forcing seven ground outs and seven fly outs in 24 at-bats.

Junior righty Jafet Martinez Delgado captured his second save of the season after tossing 2.0 scoreless innings of relief (41 pitches) with four strikeouts and one walk.

Emmanuel got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning with an RBI double to right-center to hold a 1-0 edge. The Patriots were held scoreless through the initial three frames of the contest despite five batters reaching base and four being left stranded.

In the top of the fourth, redshirt senior Dariel Villaran Goundis reached on a throwing error with two outs before advancing to third on a passed ball and a wild pitch. The next at-bat, senior second baseman Jimmy Koza laced an RBI single to center field and eventually stole second base. Freshman shortstop Logan Davis followed with an RBI single to right field to grab the lead for FMU, 2-1.

The Lions countered in the bottom half of the fourth with three runs to regain a 4-2 advantage, highlighted by a two-out, two-run single down the right-field line with the bases loaded.

After two scoreless innings, Francis Marion exploded for five runs on four hits to reclaim the lead. Redshirt junior right fielder Charlie Bussey III started the scoring with a two-run blast to left-center, his team-leading ninth of the season, to tie the game at 4-4. The Patriots would load the bases with no outs, and sophomore center fielder Adrian Nina drew a walk to record an RBI, 5-4. Later in the frame, Koza came through once again with a two-out, two-run single to left-center to extend the lead to 7-4.

FMU managed to tally three insurance runs in the ninth inning following an RBI triple by junior designated hitter Ethan McAnally and a pair of RBI singles from Nina and Davis, 10-4.

Bussey III finished the game going 4-for-5 at the plate with a home run, two runs batted in, and one run scored. McAnally went 3-for-5 with one RBI and two runs scored. Koza totaled two hits, three runs batted in, one run scored, and a stolen base, while Davis and Nina also drove in two runs.

Luke Hopper (4-3) of Emmanuel was saddled with a loss after allowing five runs on four hits in 2.0 innings of relief.