Box Score CULLOWHEE, N.C. -- Quinn Bower had a career best four hits and the Elon bullpen logged 3.2 scoreless innings as the Phoenix picked up an 8-5 victory over the Western Carolina Catamounts to even the Southern Conference series at a game apiece.

Elon (13-9, 6-5 SoCon) never trailed in the game as the Phoenix jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Antonio Alvarez's three-run home run in the top of the first.  The maroon and gold stretched its lead to 6-0 in the top of the third.  Joey Tomko led off the third with a double before scoring on a one-out single off the bat of Wil Leathers that left runners on first and second.  After a walk loaded the bases, Niko Fraser singled to center, driving home two runs.

The Catamounts (13-10, 5-3) came back with a three-run third of their own as Aaron Attaway delivered a three-run homer to left.

Western chipped away, scoring once in the fourth and once in the sixth to pull within a run at 6-5.  From there, Elon tacked on an insurance run in the seventh when Bower singled home pinch-runner Sebastian Gomez from second.  The Phoenix added a final run on a Bower infield single in the ninth as Gomez scored for the second time in the game.

Kyle Webb (2-0) was the winning pitcher after allowing five runs on 10 hits in 5.1 innings.  The final 10 outs were recorded by Andrew MacDonald who struck out a career high four hitters to earn his first save of the season.

Taking the loss was Morgan McKinney (1-2).  McKinney did not make it out of the third and allowed six runs on seven hits in 2.1 innings.

Joining Bower with multi-hit games were Tomko (2-for-5) and Fraser (2-for-3).

The rubber match of this series will be played on Sunday at 2 p.m.  The game time was pushed back one hour from the original start time of 1 p.m. due to the threat of rain.