VIRGINIA BEACH -- After victory in the first game Saturday against the Lynchburg College Hornets slipped away in the final inning, the host Marlins of Virginia Wesleyan College came back to earn a split with a win in the second game.

Virginia Wesleyan (12-15, 6-5) rode a 4-for-4 effort at the plate from Pike Brynildsen (Alexandria, Va./T.C. Williams), including a triple, and a two-hit effort from Shayne Paskanik (Fredericksburg, Va./Colonial Forge), with a double, to post an 8-3 victory in the second game in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference twinbill.

The win helped ease the disappointment of a 5-4 loss to the Hornets (14-12, 7-3) in the first game. VWC owned a 4-0 lead in that game, but Lynchburg came up with five runs in the top of the ninth to steal the win.

Lynchburg used two hits and two errors in the ninth to help pull out that win.  Up to that point the VWC defense and pitching of senior Alex DeJesus (Norfolk, Va./Lake Taylor)kept the Hornets virtually threat-less.  The Hornets fell 1-2-3 in three innings and sent only four batters to the plate in two other innings.

VWC led 2-0 after five innings and tacked on a two-run eighth inning, the latter helped by two Lynchburg errors.

DeJesus struck out six batters, walked three and scattered five hits in pitching all nine innings. 

Mike Walters (Manassas, Va./Osbourn) led the Hornets at the plate with a 3-for-5 effort. 

Game Two saw the teams play to a 1-1 tie after two innings, but VWC took the lead for good with a two-run third, which included singles from Brynildsen, Brett Sutryk (Bath, N.Y./Bath-Haverling),Paskanik and Mike McCutcheon (Chesapeake, Va./Deep Creek).

Lynchburg cut into the 3-1 deficit with a solo run in the fourth, but Virginia Wesleyan repadded its lead with a two run fifth, helped by a Paskanik two-run double to the right.  The Marlins created some distance with a three-run eighth, which included a single from Mitch Green (Cordova, Md./St. Michaels)and a Brynildsen RBI-triple.

Jake Newton (DeRutyer, N.Y./DeRuyter) picked up the pitching win, improving to 2-3.  He faced 21 batters, struck out three, walked three and allowed six hits and two earned runs.  Mike Wiley (Virginia Beach/Bayside) and Reid Hoffler (Chesapeake, Va./Suffolk Nansemond River) followed in relief.  They combined to strike out two, walk just one, and allow seven hits and one earned run.

James Womack (3-3) took the loss for Lynchburg.

The Marlins compete again on Sunday, Mar. 27, hosting the No. 16-ranked Jumbos of Tufts University at 1 p.m.

--AMDG--