The Belmont Abbey baseball team took on the Anderson Trojans at Abbey Yard this afternoon and came away with a 5-3 victory. The win improves the Crusaders to 16-7 on the season, while Anderson falls to 6-15 on the season.

The Abbey fell behind early as Anderson jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Erick Sanderson singled with one out, but a strikeout by Brett Scarberry left the Trojans down to their last out. Tony Price came through for Anderson with a two out double down the left field line to bring home Sanderson.

The Crusaders answered by exploding for four runs to claim a lead they would never lose. Dakota Irwin led off with a single and advanced all the way to third when JT Trujillo's pickoff attempt sailed into rightfield. Caleb Shore followed with a groundout to shortstop that allowed Irwin to score. After an Ian Vazquez groundout left the Abbey down to its last out, Gabby Amor singled and was chased home by a Justin Vasquez triple for the second run of the inning. Emilio Pagan's single brought home Vasquez for the third run of the inning. Pagan stole second and Joey Frabasile walked to bring up Stephen Mullis who doubled to plate Pagan and make the score 4-1.

The Abbey added to its advantage in the bottom of the fourth as Irwin led off with a homer, the first of his career and just the second extra base hit of his career, to pad the lead to 5-1.

The Trojans rallied with two outs in the top of the seventh to plate two runs and cut the Crusaders' advantage to 5-3. Ryan Kirkland was hit with a pitch to start the rally and was followed by a Thomas Padro double to put runners on second and third. Josh Hickman singled to left field to bring in both Kirkland and Padro.

Anderson would get no closer however as James White and Pagan combined for two and a third scoreless innings to close out the game with the Abbey taking the 5-3 victory.

Irwin went 2-2 at the plate for the Crusaders with a home run, two runs scored, a walk, and an RBI. Vasquez was 2-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Paul Stelling picked up the win going four innings and allowing one run while striking out seven. Pagan picked up the save, his sixth, pitching an inning and two-thirds while striking out two. Four Abbey pitchers combined to strikeout 11 Anderson batters.

Padro was the top performer for the Trojans going 3-4 at the plate with a run scored. JT Trujillo was saddled with the loss after going five innings and allowing five runs.