The Belmont Abbey baseball team rapped out 13 hits and survived a four-run Lenoir-Rhyne ninth inning to escape with a 12-11 win over the Bears this evening in Hickory. The Abbey,winners of five-straight, move to 9-3, while Lenoir-Rhyne dips to 2-9. The win gives the Crusaders a season-sweep of the Bears this season.

Leading 12-7 heading into the bottom of the ninth, Lenoir-Rhyne scored four runs on five hits to pull within one. After a leadoff groundout, the Bears strung together two-straight singles, the last of which produced a run. A sacrifice lineout to center scored a run, followed by a single and a walk loaded the bases for Anthony Sully, who banged a two-RBI single to the gap in right center to bring the Bears to within a run at 12-11, but Jordan Cudney ended the threat with a strikeout to close the game.

Pat Rossi, the third of five Abbey pitchers, picked up the win as he worked one and two-thirds scorless innings, giving up one hit and striking out one. Alex Askey, the fourth of seven Lenoir-Rhyne pitchers, took the loss. He gave up five runs, four earned, on six hits in an inning and two-thirds.

L-R jumped ahead with a four run second inning to claim the lead before the Abbey began to chip away with three in the third, using an RBI single from Joey Frabasile, an RBI groundout from Tim Dye, and a triple by Justin Vasquez that plated Frabasile.

The Bears matched the Abbey's threat with three runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth, but the Crusaders surged ahead for good by scoring in the next four innings, starting with four runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth. In the fifth, three runs came on one swing of the bat as Matt Mazzolla clubbed a three-run homer, and Dye singled home Frabasile, who led off the inning with a double.

One inning later, the Abbey moved ahead 9-7 with two runs, and added two more in the seventh on a pair of bases loaded walks to widen the gap to 11-7. The Crusaders tacked on one more in the eighth, a run that turned out to be the winning one, as Gabby Amor doubled home Vasquez.

Frabasile finished with three of the Abbey's 13 hits, going three for four with three RBI and two runs scored. Vasquez and Caleb Shore both recorded two hits. Mazzolla drove in three runs, while Dye finished with two.