The Belmont Abbey baseball team dropped both games of a doubleheader this afternoon at Carson-Newman, falling 4-2 in game one and 2-1 in game two. Carson-Newman improves to 17-14, while the Abbey falls to 21-11. Both of today's games were seven innings. Of of the six runs scored by the Eagles in both games, only one was earned.

In the opener, the Crusaders scored the first two runs of the game, starting with one in the third as Ian Vazquez struck out but reached first on a wild pitch. He moved to second on a flyout by Gabby Amor and scored on Emilio Pagan's double to rightcenter.

Two innings later, the Abbey upped its lead to 2-0. Michael Vargas led off with an infield single, stole second, and after two outs were recorded, he scored on Joey Frabasile's single down the leftfield line to give the Crusaders an insurance run.

The Eagles threatened in the fifth, piecing together a pair of hits, but starting pitcher Cody Stull worked out of the jam without allowing a run.

After the Abbey did not add to its lead in the sixth, the Eagles took advantage of two Crusader errors in the bottom of the inning to score four times. Two of the Abbey's errors came from the pitchers, the last of which allowed two runs to score, who were charged with miscues on bunts. One run was scored on a hit batter with the bases loaded, and the other came on a fielder's choice.

The Crusaders went down in order in the seventh as Carson-Newman claimed the win.

Robby Thigpen was credited with the win in two innings of scoreless relief, as he did not allow a hit, striking out two. His record moves to 5-1. Stull, who allowed just one hit in the first three innings, was charged with the loss after giving up three runs, one earned (the only earned run for Carson-Newman in the doubleheader) on four hits in five innings. He fanned five. His record drops to 3-3. Frabasile led the Abbey with two hits as the Crusaders totaled six.

In game two, the contest was scoreless until the top of the fifth when Stephen Mullis blasted a leadoff homer. The Abbey's lead was short lived, as the Eagles pushed across the tying run in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of a Crusader error. Lucas Mohon opened the inning reaching on an error and was replaced by pinch runner Phillip Duncan. A sacrifice bunt moved Duncan to second, and a shallow single to right advanced him to third. After a popout on a bunt, Duncan scored the tying run on a wild pitch.

The contest remained 1-1 until the bottom of the seventh when the Eagles scored the winning run on an Abbey error. Cody Fox was hit by a pitch to start the inning, which prompted Pagan to move from third to the mound. A sacrifice bunt moved Fox to second. After an intentional walk to put runners on first and second with one out, Troy Zawadski beat out an infield single to third, but the throw to first was wild, allowing Fox to score the winning run.

Ryan Fillers, the seventh and final pitcher of the game for Carson-Newman, earned the win in an inning of scoreless relief. He did not allow a hit as he evens his record to 4-4. Paul Stelling was charged with the loss after giving up two unearned runs on four hits in six innings.

Five different Crusaders had one hit. Carson-Newman also had five hits.

Game One Box

Game Two Box