LONDON, Ont. - The Western Mustangs used timely hitting and scored three runs in the seventh inning en route to a 6-3 win over the Laurier Golden Hawks in game one of an Ontario University Athletics doubleheader at Labatt Park. Andrew Bergman tossed 8.0 innings and earned the victory for Western, which improved 4-1 on the season.

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Western opened the scoring in the bottom half of the first inning on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Rob Wakefield that scored Andrew Thomson and gave the Mustangs a 1-0 lead.

With no one out in the top half of the Bergman worked his way out of a bases loaded jam. After surrendering a pair of base hits to lead off the inning and then loading the bases with a walk, he induced a line drive double play followed by a ground ball to shortstop to end the rally.

Laurier’s Ryan Panas lofted a sacrifice fly to left in the top of the third that scored Tim Schell and evened the score. Schell reached base leading off the inning when his line drive to right field was mishandled before he came around to make it 1-1.

The Mustangs took a 2-1 lead in the home half of the fifth when Andrew Thomson’s RBI groundball to shortstop scored Ken Falconer from third base. Falconer, a former pitcher in the Seattle Mariners’ organization, started the frame with a double off the wall in centre field before giving Western a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

Western added to its lead with a run in the sixth before a trio of runs in the seventh inning made it 6-1. Highlighting the inning were run-scoring doubles by Kevin Annett and Rob Wakefield.

Bryn McDonnell relieved Bergman in the ninth inning and surrendered a pair of unearned runs but stranded two Laurier runners to secure the victory.