The 18th-ranked Belmont Abbey baseball team suffered a 12-5 loss at Lenoir-Rhyne this afternoon at Bears Field. The Abbey jumped ahead 4-0 in the first but the Bears scored nine unanswered runs to cruise home with a 12-5 win as they improve to 12-28. Belmont Abbey falls to 29-11.

The Crusaders bolted out to a 4-0 lead in the first as Justin Vasquez roped a one out double, moved to third on a groundout by Joey Frabasile and scored on Kyle Buchanan's single to left. Chris Vazquez made it 2-0 with a double to left that brought home Buchanan all the way from first. After Vazquez moved to third on a passed ball, Tim Dye blasted a two-run homer to left to widen the gap to 4-0.

Lenior-Rhyne's response was swift and damaging, as it plated seven runs in the bottom of the inning on four hits. In the second, the Bears added one more on a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 8-4.

After another Bears run in the bottom of the fourth, the Abbey momentarily stopped the bleeding with a run in the top of the fifth as Vasquez led off with a triple and scored on a groundout by Frabasile to trim the lead to 9-5, but the Abbey would not score again.

L-R responded with a two-RBI single by Anthony Sully in the bottom of the frame, and added an RBI single in the eighth to close the scoring.

Both teams finished with 14 hits as Dye led all players with three. Vasquez, Vazquez, Buchanan, John Cucchiarella and Roberto Sanchez all had two.

L-R starting pitcher Ryan Wiese picked up the win in five innings, allowing five runs on eight hits, striking out two. Matt Parish, the first of six Abbey pitchers, took the loss after surrendering seven runs on three hits in two thirds of an inning. He struck out one and walked three.