Box Score ALLIANCE, Ohio -- Mount Union's baseball got solid pitching and clutch hitting in a 5-3 non-conference win over Thiel (Pa.) Monday at 23rd Street Field in Alliance.
The Purple Raiders have won seven of their last eight games and move to 19-10 overall.
Sophomore Wes Kemp (Uniontown/Lake) made the most of a spot start and scattered seven hits over 7.2 innings allowing three runs (two earned) to pick up his first win of the season. Gino Ceriani (Ellwood City, Pa./Lincoln) went the final 1.1 innings to get his first save of the season.
At the plate, Mount Union had 13 hits and scored four of its five runs with two outs.
Senior Connor Mathis (Akron/Firestone) had three hits while seniors Evan Knott (Canton/GlenOak), C.J. Stotler (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum) and Ricky Olasz (West Mifflin, Pa./West Mifflin) each had two hits for the Raiders.
After the first two Mount Union hitters reached in the first inning, Lee Grosscup (Green/Green) pushed across a run with a ground out to make it 1-0.
The Raiders loaded the bases on three straight singles to start the second and another run came home on a Mitchell Lake (Orwell/Grand Valley) fielders' choice to extend the score to 2-0
Mount Union made it 3-0 in the fourth as Stotler had a two out double to center field then scored on an RBI single from Olasz.
Thiel scored an unearned run in the fifth and had a runner on third when Kemp forced a ground out to keep it 3-1.
Mathis led off the bottom of the fifth with his first triple of the season and scored on an Anthony Morino (Strongsville/Strongsville) single that made it 4-1.
Kemp got the first two Tomcats out in the eighth, but Thiel loaded the bases on three straight hits and the first batter Ceriani faced -- Sam Passaflume lined a ball up the middle to score two runs to close the gap to 4-3, but the rally ended there.
Grosscup singled to start the bottom of the eighth and Mount Union got an insurance run on a two-out RBI single from Knott.
Mount Union plays its final non-conference game of the season Wednesday at 4 pm against Hiram.
Mount Union 5, Thiel 3 (Apr 21, 2014 at Alliance, Ohio)
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Thiel............... 000 010 020 - 3 9 0 (12-19)
Mount Union......... 110 110 01X - 5 13 1 (19-10)
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Pitchers: Thiel - Jaden Nozicka; Kevin Forrester(6) and Dan Koller. Mount Union -
Wes Kemp;
Weather: 73 F Sunny 10 mph SW
