SALISBURY, N.C. -- The Catawba College baseball team scored 12 unanswered runs and hit its first three home runs of the season on Wednesday afternoon, slugging its way to a 12-5 win over Mount Olive at Newman Park. The Catawba Indians improve to 3-1 on the year, while the Trojans drop to 0-1.

UMO jumped out to a 5-0 lead through the middle of the fourth inning, but Catawba stormed back, scoring eight runs in the bottom half of the inning. Dylan Driver continued his scorching start to the season with a solo homer to give the Catawba Indians their first hit and run of the game.

Later, Jackson Price hit a grand slam to tie the game at 5. Cooper Bryson broke the tie with an RBI single up the middle before Driver drove in two more runs on a double on his second trip to the plate in the frame.

The game broke open in the sixth, when Carson Yates knocked the team's third homer of the game over the game in a three-run blast to make it a 12-5 Catawba lead. Griffyn Shelton, Casey Gouge and Cole Hales combined to give up just three hits in 5.2 innings of shutout relief out of the bullpen to shut down any potential comebacks.

The team travels to Florence, S.C. this weekend, playing USC Beaufort on Saturday and early Sunday before taking on host Francis Marion later on Sunday.