COLUMBIA, Ky. -- The Anthony Roberts home run tour continued on Friday afternoon as the University of Pikeville senior hit a two-run shot in the first inning to set the tone for a 10-5 win at Lindsey Wilson, giving the Bears their first series sweep of a Mid-South Conference opponent this season.

Roberts' three-game totals are scary good, going 8 for 11 (.727) at the plate with four home runs, six RBIs, a double and seven runs scored. He was also hit by a pitch twice and drew a pair of walks as he struck out just once in 15 plate appearances.

While the first-inning long ball set the tone, it was Jay Vincent's fifth-inning grand slam that really set the idea of a sweep in motion. Leading 4-2 and needing some insurance, Vincent hit the four-run blast with two outs to quickly give UPIKE (23-20, 6-12 MSC) an 8-2 lead. And the runs would be needed as the Blue Raiders (26-23, 10-8 MSC) came up with three more runs in the sixth and seventh innings.

The home runs from Roberts will steal the headlines, but Josh Bailey was every bit as good for the Bears in the series, going 8 for 13 (.615) at the plate with a pair of home runs himself. The senior drove in five runs, had a double, scored eight runs himself and was 2 for 2 stealing bases.

Dalton Dahley picked up the win on the bump, allowing three runs on eight hits with three strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. The lead was too big for a save when Bryce Carden entered in relief in the seventh, but he still shut LWC down, allowing just one hit and fanning three batters in the final 2 2/3 frames.

Lindsey's Aaron Pearcy was handed the loss after giving up four runs on four hits in 3 2/3.

Roberts had the hot hand at the plate in the win going 3 for 4 with two RBIs, while Bailey, Jorge Perez, Matt Peterson and Alec Barba all added two hits each.

It was even at 2-2 after the first inning and stayed that way until the Bears scored a pair of three singles and a walk in the fourth. Peterson tallied the go-ahead hit with an RBI single before Barba added another run-scoring single in the next at bat.

Following Vincent's grand slam and an RBI double by Perez in the seventh, the Blue Raiders scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 9-5 game, but that's as close as it would get. UPIKE's Justin Beatty scored Barba with a single in the eighth to widen the gap some more with Carden dealing on the mound.

UP NEXT

UPIKE wraps up the regular season with a trip to Rio Grande (Ohio) for a 1 p.m. ET doubleheader.

With the sweep of Lindsey, the Bears earned the tiebreaker over Shawnee State (Ohio) for the No. 6 seed in next week's MSC Championship Opening Round. UPIKE will travel to No. 3-seed Lindsey Wilson for a best-of-3 series with the winner advancing to Bowling Green for a four-team, double-elimination conference championship.

The opening-round series at Lindsey Wilson must be scheduled between next Thursday through Sunday, the host Blue Raiders will announce the exact dates early next week and will be posted on UPIKEBears.com.

-UPIKE-