The Belmont Abbey baseball team dropped the first game of a doubleheader to the visiting Erskine College Flying Fleet by a 4-1 score, but rallied to take the nightcap by a 3-2 edge to avoid a sweep. Erskine moves to 10-10 overall and 4-5 in Conference Carolinas, while the Abbey drops to 17-9 overall and 8-4 in Conference Carolinas.

In the opener, which was seven innings, Erskine moved ahead 3-0 in the top of the first as Chase Corn singled and raced to second on a throwing error. After a groundout, Drew Willingham chopped a grounder to short. The throw went to third to negate Corn, but he beat the throw to put runners on first and third with nobody out. A strikeout came next for the second out of the inning, but Brandon Wooten slapped a double just inside the third base line, scoring Corn for the first run. Zach McCarthy followed with another double, this one an opposite field shot to left, that chased home Wooten and Willingham to widen the gap to 3-0.

The Fleet's lead grew to 4-0 in the third on a sacrifice fly by Wooten, but the Abbey pulled one back in the bottom of the inning as Ian Vasquez singled to left, was sacrificed to second by Gabby Amor and scored on Justin Vasquez's single back up the box to cut the lead to 4-1.

That turned out to be all of the scoring for the game, but the Abbey had its chances in each of the last three innings. In the fifth, the Crusaders put runners on first and second with no outs, but a flyout ended the inning. In the sixth, Kyle Buchanan reached with a two out single, but was left stranded. The biggest chance came in the seventh, as Vazquez and Amor reached on one out singles. After an infield fly, they both moved up one base on a wild pitch to put runners on second and third with two outs. On a 3-2 pitch, Emilio Pagan lifted a fly ball to left. Just as the ball was coming down, McCarthy slipped and fell down, but got up just in time to make a diving catch to end the game.

Belmont Abbey finished with eight hits as Vazquez, Amor and Buchanan all had two. Vasquez and Joey Frabasile both had one each. Wooten led the Fleet with two hits as they totaled six. Both teams had one error.

Robbie Brown went the distance to earn the win, giving up one run on eight hits, striking out a pair and walking two. Steven Thiele took the loss. He gave up four runs on six hits in seven innings, striking out five and walking one.

In game two, the Crusaders drew first blood in the bottom of the first as Vazquez worked a leadoff walk and moved to third on a throwing error by catcher Phillip Herring on a pickoff attempt. After a groundout, Vasquez plated Vazquez with a long flyout to left for the game's first run. That was followed by an infield single from Pagan, who then moved to second on a wild pitch. Matt Mazzolla brought him home with a single back through the box to move the lead to 2-0.

Erskine answered by scoring single runs in the second and third innings to tie the game, as a solo homer by Richard Dix in the third cut the lead in half, and a double by Josh Purvis set up an RBI single by Willingham to knot the game at two.

The pitching staffs took control of the game from there, as neither team scored until the Abbey broke the tie in the bottom of the eighth. The frame began with two groundouts, but Vazquez kept the inning alive with a single to center. He then stole second and scored the go-ahead run on Amor's single to the gap in right center. A flyout ended the inning.
Pagan came on to pitch in the top of the ninth to nail down his seventh save. After a leadoff groundout, he hit Corn with a pitch to put the tying run on base, but a flyout and a strikeout ended the game as the Abbey earned the win.

Gabe Wallmeyer moved his record to 3-1 on the victory, as he gave up two runs on ten hits in eight innings, striking out four. He had five assists defensively, as he retired the first four batters of the game on ground balls to him. Taylor Wall took the loss. He gave up the winnng run on three hits in an inning of work, facing six batters. Pagan earned his Conference Carolinas leading seventh save in as many tries.

Both teams finished with ten hits as Vasquez, Pagan and Mazzolla all led the Abbey with two each. Purvis led Erskine with three hits and Herring had a pair.

Game One Box

Game Two Box