The Misericordia University baseball team opened a three-game series with Eastern with an 8-4 win, Friday afternoon in St. Davids.

Parker Abate had three hits and drove in a run Chad Bell had two hits and three RBI for the Cougars.  Conor Smith had two hits and two RBI and Adam Concadoro had two hits and an RBI.

Ian McCole struck out seven over seven innings to improve to 5-0 while Kyle Melahn struck out four in two innings of perfect relief.

Abate opened the game with an infield single and Santo Guinta and Shane Hughes both walked to load the bases before a balk forced home Abate with the game's first run.

After Eastern scored twice in their first at bat, the Cougars tied it in the top of the second.  Smith drew a lead-off walk, moved up on a wild pitch and scored on Bell's single to left field.

MU went back in front in the top of the third.  Hughes drew a two-out walk and advanced on Dalton Emerich's bunt single before Smith's RBI-single to center gave MU a 3-2 lead.

The Cougars did more two-out damage in the fifth.  Concadoro doubled and scored on Bell's single to left.  Kenny Jarema singled and Abate followed with a run-scoring single up the middle to make it 5-2.

Misericordia added three more runs in the top of the sixth.  Guinta singled through the left side and Emerich drew a one-out walk.  Smith drove in a run with a single and stole second.  Concadoro singled up the middle to make it 7-2 and Bell closed out the scoring with an RBI-bunt.

Eastern added two runs in the bottom of the sixth, but McCole and Melahn combined to retire the last 10 batters.

MU is 13-6 overall and 5-2 in the MAC Freedom and will host Eastern in a doubleheader, Saturday at 1:00.