CARY, N.C. – Senior Brady Mengel  homered and the Mansfield University baseball team belted out 11 hits, but Le Moyne College used a late rally to send the contest to extra innings and hit a walk off single in the 11^th to earn an 8-7 non-conference victory on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 15 at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, N.C.

The Mounties (0-1 overall) notched 11 hits in the season opener after spending the previous three months inside. Six Mountaineers had a hit, including four players with multi-hit performances. Sophomore Brittain Shander (2-6, 2B, 2 RBI), Mengel (2-5, 2 RBI, HR) and junior Ben Osborne (3-6, 2 RBI) each drove in a pair of runs and senior Josh Kulina added two hits, a triple and an RBI.

The Mountaineers jumped out to an early 7-1 lead through four complete, but the Le Moyne offense started to catch life and five Mansfield mishaps allowed the Dolphins back in the game.

In the bottom of the 11^th, freshman Todd Erney retired the leadoff before back-to-back Dolphins reached base on a walk and hit-by-pitch. With runners on first and second, Le Moyne's Nicholas Jacques drove in the winning run with a single to left field.

Senior Bryce Zaparzynski battled threw his first start of the season, allowing one earned run in 5 and 2/3 innings while striking out six Dolphin hitters.

Sam Burns (1-1) threw two scoreless innings in relief to earn the victory. Erney (0-1) was handed the loss after tossing 2 and 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on three hits and striking out two.

The Mounties (0-1 overall) kicked off the scoring in the first when Kulina tripled and was driven in by Osborne.

Le Moyne answered with a run in the bottom of the inning, but Zaparzynski settled in and did not allow another run until the sixth.

Mansfield extended their lead to 4-1 after a three-run second inning thanks to three hits and two Le Moyne errors. Mengel led off with a single and junior Nate Cotton reached on an error to set up second and third. Shander capitalized with a two RBI double and was later drove in on Osborne's second RBI single of the afternoon.

The Mounties added three more runs in the fourth and fifth to push the lead to 7-1. Mengel highlighted the rally with a two-run blast over the left field wall. However, Le Moyne used a three-run sixth inning to cut the deficit to 7-6 and snuck across the tying run in the ninth to send the game into extras.  

Each team added a hit in the first extra frame but came away scoreless to set up the dramatic finish.

Jacques finished with two hits and drove in three runs and Nick Nevins was 3-for-5 to lead the Dolphins offense.

The Mounties are back in action tomorrow morning when they take on Assumption College for a non-conference doubleheader beginning at 10 a.m.