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HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana University baseball team (3-2) got down early to Sacred Heart (0-1), but the Lions rallied for their third comeback win of the season, coming out on top in a 10-9 slugfest in Friday's series opener against the Pioneers at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.

The Pioneers struck early and often against Southeastern pitching.  Sacred Heart tallied four home runs in the first four frames.  The Pioneers scored three in the first, one in the second, two in the third and two in the fourth.

Fortunately, for Southeastern, the Lions rallied for one run in each of the first three frames and senior right hander Ryan Collins kept Sacred Heart off the board in the fifth and sixth.

The Chalmette native entered the game with two outs and runners at first and second.  After a wild pitch, Collins pitched out of the jam to keep the Lions in the game 8-3.

“Ryan did a great job, coming in and getting out of that jam,” head coach Jay Artigues said.  “That was the difference in the ball game.  It changed the tempo the rest of the way and our hitters really fed off of that.”

Down 8-3, the Lions mounted a rally in the bottom of the fifth.  Senior shortstop Ty Summerlin doubled down the right field line to lead things off.  The hit gave Summerlin 199 for his career and sole possession of third place on the Lions all-time career hits list. 

Senior designated hitter Brandon Street followed with an RBI single, and, before it came to an end, the Lions would send eight men to the plate en route to a four run fourth to cut the Sacred Heart lead to 8-7.

After Collins turned away the Pioneers in the top of the sixth, the Lion offense struck again in the home half.

Sophomore center fielder Cass Hargis led off with a walk, Summerlin singled to become the just the third Lion ever to record 200 career hits (joining Joe Labruzzo and Mackey Waguespack) and Street notched an RBI double down the right field line to tie things up at 8-8.

Summerlin would come home on an RBI groundout by Josh Cryer, and Street scored from third on a wild pitch as Southeastern took a 10-8 lead into the top of the seventh.

With the Lions leading for the first time on the night, Sacred Heart tried to mount a comeback of their own in the eighth as Pioneer right fielder Paul Schmidt led off with a solo home to make it 10-9. 

 
However, Collins found his stride and retired the next three batters to get out of the inning.  The senior right hander finished the job by turning away Sacred Heart in the ninth for his first win of the season.

“This is a real fun group to coach,” Artigues said.  “We can win a lot of different ways.  We're comfortable when we're throwing well and we're in a 3-2 ballgame, but we're able to stay in the game if we're down early because we know we can win high-scoring games like these.  Ryan did his job to keep us in the game and our offense really responded.”

The victory gives the Lions their third come-from-behind win this season.

Southeastern will return to action tomorrow with first pitch of game two of this three-game weekend series against Sacred Heart set for 1:00 p.m.  Live stats will be available online at www.LionSports.net.