The Belmont Abbey baseball team fell 9-8 at the 18th-ranked UNC Pembroke Braves this evening at Sammy Cox Field. UNCP scored the final five runs of the game, erasing an 8-4 Crusader lead. The Braves improve to 30-13, while the Abbey falls to 18-24.

Rudy Brown, the fourth of five Braves pitchers, picked up the win in an inning of relief, allowing one hit and striking out two. Drew Hardee took the loss after yielding the winning run in the bottom of the eighth on two hits, striking out two. Brian Willis struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth to pick up his tenth save.

Belmont Abbey rapped out 14 hits as Vinnie Santoemma finished four for five with a run scored. Chris Vazquez collected three hits in four at bats, two of them home runs, with three RBI. Justin Baxley registered a pair of hits.

UNCP grabbed a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first but the Crusaders cut it in half in the top of the second on a solo homer by Tim Dye. One inning later, the Abbey exploded for five runs to build its lead to 6-2. Vazquez blasted a three run homer, Roland Rodriguez drove in a run on a groundout, and Santoemma scored on an error.

The Braves chipped in to the Crusaders advantage with single runs in the third and fourth to trim the deficit to 6-4, but the Abbey responded with two in the fifth to stretch the lead to 8-4 on a two-run shot by Vazquez, but it would not score again.

UNC Pembroke matched the Abbey's two runs in the fifth, and it tied the game in the seventh with two more runs. In the bottom of the eighth, it scored the winning run with two outs. Aaron Parnell led off with a triple, but Hardee retired the next two batters on strikeouts. After a walk to Kenny Mickens, Seth Kivett beat out an infield single that allowed Parnell to score from third for the winning run.

Kivett finished with three of the Braves nine hits in four at bats, driving in three runs. Parnell and Josh Haley had two hits.