The Belmont Abbey baseball team dropped the third game of its Conference Carolinas baseball series at Mount Olive 21-5 this afternoon at Scarborough Field.

Belmont Abbey (32-17, 16-8) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on Carlos Vasquez' two-out RBI-single. The Crusaders had a chance for more after Seth Waller doubled and Jay McConnell hit a hard grounder up the middle. But Trojan shortstop David Cooper cut the ball off behind the second base bag and threw McConnell out at first to prevent an apparent two-run single.

Vasquez' drove in Belmont Abbey's second run after Alex Castellanos tripled off the top of the center field fence with one out in the third. Vasquez eventually scored on Waller's single through the left side to cut the Trojans' lead to 6-3.

After Mount Olive scored a run in the bottom of the third on back-to-back two-out triples, Belmont Abbey had runners on first and second with nobody out in the top of the fourth, but the Trojans got out of the jam on a force at third and an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

The Trojans were retired in order in the fourth, but put the game out of reach with 12 runs over the next two innings.

Belmont Abbey starter Tyler Powell (4-4), the first of five Crusader pitchers, took the loss.