Belmont Abbey leftfielder John Cucchiarella broke a 1-1 tie with an RBI single in the top of the eighth, and Emilo Pagan nailed down his Conference Carolinas leading tenth save as the Crusaders opened a three-game set at North Greenville with a 2-1 win.

The victory, which moves the Abbey into first place in the Western Division, improves the Crusader record to 24-13 overall and 14-5 in Conference Carolinas, while North Greenville drops to 22-13 overall and 11-5 in Conference Carolinas.

The Crusaders overcame a 1-0 deficit in the fifth as they used two North Greenville errors to score twice. Caleb Shore worked a one out walk, and after a strikeout, Ian Vazquez singled him to second. North Greenville then made two errors on one play, as Gabby Amor reached on an error by the first baseman, and moved all the way to third on a throwing error. Shore scored on the first error to tie the contest at one.

The score remained deadlocked at one until the top of the eighth. Frabasile led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Shore. Cucchiarella broke the tie with a single to right, allowing Joey Frabasile to score just ahead of the throw for the winning run.

Matt Parish worked around two North Greenville hits in the bottom of the eighth to keep the score intact, and the Crusaders were held scoreless in the top of the ninth.

In the bottom of the frame, Pagan retired the leadoff batter with a groundout, then walked the next batter on four pitches, but a 4-6-3 double play ended the game.

Parish moved his record to 6-1 as he held North Greenville scoreless over one and two-thirds innings, giving up a pair of singles. Starting pitcher Cody Stull allowed just one run on five hits in six and one-thirds innings, striking out two. Pagan earned his tenth save. North Greenville reliever Nate Richards was charged with the loss. He gave up the winning run on one hit in two innings, striking out one. North Greenville starter Drew Provence picked up a no decision after he struck out 11 batters in seven innings, allowing an unearned run on six hits. North Greenville was charged with five errors in the game.

Both teams finished with seven hits, all singles, as Pagan and Cucchiarella both led the Abbey with two each.