BELMONT, N.C. – The Belmont Abbey baseball team returned home for its final week of regular season action starting with a Monday contest against Lenoir-Rhyne at Abbey Yard. The Crusaders jumped out to an early lead before the Bears answered with nine unanswered runs and an 11-6 final score in favor of Lenoir-Rhyne.
It was the final nonconference game of the regular season for The Abbey, who finish out that portion of the schedule with a 19-1 record.
Belmont Abbey is now 33-14 on the season while Lenoir-Rhyne closes its regular season with a 36-14 mark.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Lenoir-Rhyne jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning before Belmont Abbey responded with an RBI single by Connor Tucker to put his team on the scoreboard.
- The big inning for The Abbey came in the second as the Crusaders plated five runs to take a 6-2 lead.
- Todd Velotta, Garrett Browder and Caleb Burr all had RBI singles in the inning while Ben Ferguson drew a walk with the bases loaded. The Crusaders batted around in the inning
- The Bears added two runs in the fourth to cut the deficit to 6-4 before a 6-run fifth inning broke the game open.
- Tucker and Velotta had two hits each to lead the Belmont Abbey offense.
- Myles Hedgecock drew his first loss of the season for the Crusaders.
- Lenoir-Rhyne used 11 pitchers in the contest compared to five for Belmont Abbey.
UP NEXT
The Crusaders play their final home series of the regular series against King starting at 5 p.m. Friday at Abbey Yard. The series concludes with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Belmont Abbey has clinched a spot in the Conference Carolinas Tournament and will be anywhere from a No. 5 through No. 8 seed pending the outcome of this weekend's conference schedule.
