HICKORY, N.C. — The Catawba Valley Community College baseball team made the most of six hits and 14 drawn walks on Monday night, knocking off the Lenoir-Rhyne JV squad 12-3 in its home opener at Henkel-Alley Field.

Freshman outfielder Brett Eurey led the Red Hawks (4-1) with a grand slam in the fourth inning of the contest — his second home run in three games.

On the mound, Red Hawks freshman starting pitcher Andrew Patrick picked up his first win of the season, allowing two hits, two earned runs, three walks and striking out six batters.

CVCC pitchers combined to strike out 20 LR batters on Monday, including five by Nic Messina and Greg Collins, two by Elijah Carr and one each by Chase Covington and Myles White.

Catawba Valley took a 3-0 lead in the first inning without a single hit, scoring on a wild pitch, a drawn walk by catcher Willie Gordon and an RBI fielder's choice by left fielder Jackson Brown.

Garrison Burress added to the CVCC lead in the bottom of the second inning on an RBI single — his team-leading eighth RBI this season — to make it a 4-0 lead for the Red Hawks.

The Bears broke through on the scoreboard in the top of the third inning, plating two runs on an RBI sac fly by Adam Dempski and Austin Reed RBI double, cutting their deficit to two runs.

The biggest inning offensively by either team came in the fourth when CVCC — led by Eurey's four-run blast and an RBI double by first baseman Tyler Campbell — scored six runs to take a commanding 10-2 advantange. Campbell tallied a team-high two hits with two runs driven in in Monday's non-conference contest.

Lenoir-Rhyne plated its final run on a double by Connor Smith in the fifth inning before Catawba Valley closed out the contest with back-to-back one-run innings in the fifth and sixth, including an RBI single by Campbell and an RBI fielder's choice by Sabion Thomas.

The Catawba Valley Community College baseball team returns to action on Wednesday for a road doubleheader against the Limestone JV squad before starting conference play this weekend at home against Paul D. Camp.