The third-seeded Belmont Abbey baseball team fell to the fourth-seeded Pfeiffer University Falcons 7-4 in 11 innings this morning in the opening round of the 2010 Conference Carolinas Baseball Tournament at Fleming Stadium in Wilson, North Carolina. Pfeiffer tied the game at three in the top of the ninth with a two run homer and then scored three times in the eleventh after the Crusaders deadlocked the game at four in the tenth. Pfeiffer moves to 25-25 overall, while the Crusaders drop to 17-21.

After three and a half innings of scoreless baseball, the Crusaders jumped ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth as Justin Baxley led off with a double to left center. Roland Rodriguez drew a walk, and Spencer Sobol beat out a double play attempt, negating Rodriguez at second but allowing Baxley to move to third. Daniel Torrente scored Baxley with a sacrifice fly to deep center to put the Abbey ahead 1-0.

One inning later, Chris Vazquez upped the lead to 3-0 with an opposite field homer to right, scoring Tim Dye, who led off the frame with a double to right.

The Falcons cut the lead in half in the sixth with an unearned run. After a leadoff groundout, Hunter Boehme reached on a dropped fly ball and moved to second on a wild throw of an attempted pickoff. Myles Pearl moved him to third with a single to left, and a groundout to second by Zack Pou brought him home to close the Abbey lead to 2-1.

That was all of the scoring until the ninth when Pfeiffer deadlocked the game at three with one swing of the bat. Jordan Cudney entered the game in relief of Tyler Powell, who held the Falcons to an unearned run on four hits with eight strikeouts. Preston Lyon led off with a single, and Will Davis followed with a towering homer to left center to tie the game at three. Cudney retired the next three batters on a groundout and two strikeouts.

Belmont Abbey did not threaten in the ninth, and Pfeiffer pushed one across in the tenth to take a 4-3 lead. Boehme reached on a fielder's choice, stole second, and scored on a single by Pearl.

Down to its final three outs, the Abbey gained the equalizer in the bottom of the frame. Vazquez began the inning by striking out, but reached on a wild pitch. Ryan Ronda sacrificed him to second. After a strikeout, Roberto Sanchez lashed a double off the wall in right center, scoring Vazquez easily with the tying run. Baxley was intentionally walked and Rodriguez was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Spencer Sobol, but he struck out to end the inning.

In the eleventh, Cudney retired the first batter he faced but gave up an infield single to Josh Strickland. That was followed by a two-run blast to left by Eric Shoemaker to push the Falcons ahead 6-4. Jesse Dunn kept the rally going with a double to right center, and he moved to third on a groundout by Aarin Sharpe. Boehme singled to right, scoring Dunn, upping the lead to 7-4. The Abbey went down in order in the bottom of the inning to end the game.

Pfeiffer finished with 12 hits as Pearl went three for six with an RBI. Davis and Sharpe both collected two hits. Sanchez and Vazquez both had two hits as the Crusaders totaled ten for the game.

Luke Wilhelm earned the win in three and two-thirds innings of relief, giving up one run on two hits, striking out five and walking one. Cudney took the loss. He gave up six runs on eight hits in two and two-thirds innings.

The Abbey will play the winner of the Mount Olive-Anderson game tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m.