The early season offensive struggles are apparently a thing of the past for the Lancaster Bible College baseball team as the Chargers crushed 26 hits and scored 17 runs on Wednesday in Myrtle Beach, S.C. en route to a 17-13 victory over Albertus Magnus. The win sends the Chargers to 4-3 this season and Lancaster Bible is now 3-2 on its spring break trip. The Chargers will close out their trip on Thursday with a doubleheader against the same Albertus Magnus squad, beginning at 3 p.m. 

How it Happened: In a game that took four hours and 20 minutes, the first inning provided the foreshadowing of the following eight innings as the teams combined for 11 runs in the opening frame. The Chargers opened the scoring in the top half of the inning as senior Justin Taylor doubled home junior Josh Mayer, and sophomore Will Welsh followed with a two-run home run. 

The lead was short-lived as Albertus Magnus sent 13 batters to the plate in the bottom half of the inning and scored eight times. The Falcons drew seven walks and had just three hits in the inning, but led by five after one inning of play. The rough first inning didn't seem to bother the Chargers as they came right back with four runs in the top of the second and trailed just 8-7 after an inning and a half. Mayer, Welsh, sophomore Adam Cohick and junior Braden Elliott had RBIs in the second, as the Chargers had four more hits.

The Falcons scored twice in the third to restore its three-run lead, but the Chargers responded in their half of the fourth as Taylor scored on a wild pitch and junior JJ Sanchez picked up an RBI with a single later in the inning that scored Welsh to make it 10-9 in favor of Albertus Magnus.

After the Falcons scored once in the bottom of the fourth, the Chargers tied the game at 11-11 in the top of the fifth as Welsh and freshman Michael Hill collected RBI hits. Albertus Magnus scored once in the fifth and sixth to take a 13-11 lead after six innings, but Lancaster Bible's offense was not done yet.

Welsh clobbered his second home run of the game in the seventh inning and Cohick, Hill and Elliott followed with singles to load the bases. Freshman Matt Taylor pinch hit for Sanchez and picked a great time to collect his first-ever collegiate hit as he singled home Cohick and Hill to give Lancaster Bible a 14-13 lead. Sophomore Jensen King hit a sacrifice fly later in the inning that scored Elliott to put the Chargers up by two.

Lancaster Bible scored another run in the eighth and ninth innings to grab a 17-13 lead heading to the bottom of the ninth. Albertus Magnus put a scare into the Chargers in the last half of the ninth as the first three batters reached base via the base on balls and loaded the bases with no one out. Justin Taylor entered the game for Lancaster Bible and got Daniel Kennedy to fly out to right field. Andrew Scully attempted to tag up, but Welsh's throw from right field was on target and sent Scully back to the bag. Taylor then threw the ball to the shortstop, Elliott who attempted to tag out Tom Crocco who was leaning off second base. As this was happening, Scully broke for home and was thrown out by Elliott as the Chargers recorded the second out of the inning. 

After another single loaded the bases again for the Falcons, Taylor got Christian Bradley to strike out to end the game.

Inside the Box Score: Welsh finished 4-for-6 with five RBIs and four runs scored...Cohick was also 4-for-6 with a run scored and an RBI...Justin Taylor was 3-for-4 with three walks, four runs scored and an RBI...Elliott was 5-for-6 with two RBI and a run scored...Hill finished 3-for-6 with a run scored and an RBI...King and Mayer each had two hits and combined to score five runs...Sophomore Zach Bonick pitched the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings to earn his second win of the year, while Justin Taylor picked up his first save of the season.

Information Hodge Podge: This was the first-ever meeting between the two teams...The top six batters in the order combined to go 23-for-40 (.575) and score 16 of the 17 runs...Bonick's two wins match his total from last season...Cohick, Welsh and Taylor are all hitting over .400 so far this season.