NEWBERRY, S.C. – Justin Mahon went 4-for-5 with three home runs and scored the winning run at No. 7 seed Mars Hill College upset No. 2 Presbyterian College 8-7 in 10 innings in a first round game of the 2002 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Baseball Tournament. The double elimination tournament is being held at Kirkland Field in conjunction with the Food Lion SAC Spring Sports Festival.

Mars Hill will face No. 3 seed Catawba College in Friday’s winners’ bracket semifinal at 12:45 p.m. at Kirkland Field. Presbyterian will face No. 6 seed Wingate University at 12:45 p.m. on Friday at Bill Harvey Field on the campus of Newberry High School.

Mahon, the 2002 SAC Freshman of the Year, drove in four runs and scored four times in the victory for the Lions who improve to 25-24 on the season. Bronson Whiteside also went 4-for-5 including his RBI double in the top of the 10^th inning to score Mahon with the winning score. Whiteside posted two doubles on the night as MHC outhit the Blue Hose 18-13.

Mars Hill jumped out to a 4-0 lead scoring two runs in the first and two more in the fifth inning. MHC starter Wes Hardin held PC at bay limiting the Blue Hose to just two hits through five innings. But in the sixth, Presbyterian (25-28) came off the mat as Tombo Hite and Kevin White responded with a pair of two-run homers to tie the game at 4-4.

The Lions regained the lead in the seventh with two runs, including Mahon who led off with his third home run of the night. PC cut the deficit in half with a run in the bottom of the frame as Matt Warren singled home Keagan Broussard. It could have been a bigger inning for PC, but Hite was thrown out at home on a single by Heath McCutcheon who was thrown out at second base on an inning-ending double-play.

Mars Hill added an insurance run in the top of the ninth as Karl Ruf led off with a double and later scored on a wild pitch for a 7-5 MHC lead. That run would prove big when PC plated two runs in the bottom of the inning on Warren’s two-run homer knotted the game at 7-7. McCutcheon reached with a one-out single as Sean Murphy came on to get Davis Rice to ground out into a double play to send the contest into extra innings.

The Lions flied out twice to start the inning, but Mahon drew a walk and scored from first on Whiteside’s double. Murphy (6-2) pitched the final 1 2/3 innings and allowed one hit in the win.

Ruff, Richard Hendrix and Trinity Phillips all had multi-hit games for Mars Hill. Hite and Warren each posted three hits, while McCutcheon added two in the loss. Warren also recorded three RBI for the Blue Hose.