Trailing 14-12 entering the top of the ninth, the Belmont Abbey baseball team plated four runs in the frame to cap off a wild 16-14 win at Mars Hill this afternoon. The win improves the Abbey's record to 18-7-1, while the Lions drop to 7-18.

The two teams combined to score 30 runs on 17 hits and the defenses made six errors in the field. The Abbey trailed 9-1 at one point and scored four times in the final inning to seal the win.

In the ninth, Weston Clarke reached on a one out error and moved to second on a pinch hit single by Matt Mazzolla. Both men scored on a three run homer to left by Quinn Hawksworth, which moved the Abbey ahead 15-14. Ian Vazquez kept the rally going with a single and a steal of second. After a flyout and a pitching change, Anthony Dimino laced a single to right, scoring Vazquez with an insurance run.

Matt Davenport, who entered the game in the eighth, retired the side in order in the bottom of the ninth to get the win.

After the Crusaders scored one in the first on a bases loaded walk to Kennan Stanley, Mars Hill scored two in the first and added seven more in the third to move ahead 9-1.

Belmont Abbey fired right back, as it plated eight in the fifth on four hits to deadlock the contest at nine. Belmont Abbey scored four runs on bases loaded walks and added an RBI single from Michael Falsetti, a sacrifice fly from Hawksworth and two more came in when Andrew Anderson reached on an error that chased home Stanley and Adam Venditti.

Mars Hill responded with four straight runs, two in the fifth and two more in the sixth to regain the lead again, this time at 13-9, but the Crusaders scored seven of the game's final eight runs, starting with three in the seventh, taking advantage of two Lions miscues. The three runs chopped the Lions lead to 13-12. Mars Hill pushed one across in the eighth on a Marc Marsh sacrifice bunt that scored Tommy Scala from third, but the Abbey won it in the ninth, thanks largely to Hawksworth's round-tripper.

Both teams combined to use 11 pitchers as Davenport worked the final inning and two-thirds, allowing no runs on no hits. Nick Villalobos took the loss after giving up four runs, two earned, on three hits in two and one-thirds innings. He walked two and struck out one.

Belmont Abbey finished with 12 hits as Falsetti led the way with three. Hawksworth finished with two and drove in five runs. Dimino and Stanley both had two RBI. Vazquez and Dimino both had two hits.