ROCKY MOUNT, North Carolina -- The Ferrum College baseball team opened its season on the road in a non-conference series against the Battling Bishops of North Carolina Wesleyan University Sunday afternoon. The Panthers took game one 6-5, and game two was paused due to darkness with Ferrum trailing 11-4 in the home-half of the fourth inning. The second game will be finished at Panther Field, as well as the rubber match of the series, Tuesday February 23.

RECORDS
Ferrum (1-0)
N.C. Wesleyan (1-1)

THE BASICS
N.C. Wesleyan got things started in the bottom of the second inning when a Tyson Bass single brought Lyon across to score. The Bishops would add two more off of a Nathan Hibbs single, bringing Bass and Travis Cross in to score as well and put an end to Panther starter Will Davis' night on the mound.

The Panthers would answer back in the visiting half of the third as Matt Yarbrough would leave the yard with Josh Greenway scoring on the 2-run bomb.

N.C. Wesleyan would be the next to score, this time in the fourth, with a Jackson Hobbs single to left field, bringing Brad Pennington around to score and the Bishops would take the 4-2 lead through four complete.

Yarbrough's day at the plate wasn't done for the Panthers, as a ground out to the 2nd-baseman would allow Rufus Hurdle to score in the 6th and then a bases-clearing triple in the 7th would bring Greenway and Ozzie Torres around to score and take the 5-4 lead.

Blake Boggs would be credited an RBI in the top of the 9th as he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Torres, and that was all the Panthers would need to hang on. The Bishops would add a run in the home-half of the closing frame with a Zach Scott sacrafice fly, but they would leave the tying run stranded at 3rd as Hibbs struck out to end the game.

KEY STATS
Ferrum: Yarbrough 2-5, HR, 3B, 5 RBI; Boggs 1-3, RBI, Redd (ND) 4.2 IP, 4 H, ER
N.C. Wesleyan: Hibbs 1-5, 2 RBI; Bass 2-5, RBI; Carter (ND) 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 8 K

BEHIND THE WHISTLE
"It was great to get back on the field today! Even though we didn't play very good baseball, we had good effort and we competed well today and came away with a win in our first game in almost a year." --Head Coach Ryan Brittle

UP NEXT
The Panthers will finish up the non-conference series Tuesday, February 23 at home inside of Panther Stadium. First pitch of the continuated game is set for 3 p.m.