BELMONT, N.C. -- Belmont Abbey and Converse battled through two polar opposite games Tuesday with each team winning a pair of one-run games. The Crusaders won a pitchers' duel 1-0 in the opener before the Valkyries took an extra-inning slugfest 8-7 in the nightcap.
With the results, The Abbey stands 9-15 overall and 3-5 in league play, while Converse is now 8-22, 4-6. The teams are 2-2 and 2-4, respectively, in Northwest Division play.
THE OPENER
- Belmont Abbey scored the game's only run on a bases-loaded, full-count walk by Ivy Holley in the bottom of the sixth.
- The inning started with a single by Hannah Jane Gard before a wild pitch and fielder's choice put runners on the corners. A walk loaded the bases, then after a force at the plate, Holley battled back from a 1-2 count to plate the game-wining run.
- The Crusaders recorded only three hits, each of them from the leadoff hitter. Megan Towery singled in the second and Laing singled in the fourth before Gard's hit.
- Sienna Garcia allowed just two hits to the Valkyries in the complete-game victory. She improved to 5-7, striking out eight against four walks.
THE NIGHTCAP
- Alayna Patrick had two hits and scored a pair of runs, while Casey Laing homered as part of a four-RBI game.
- Lily Garnett-Brown and Kennedy Teasley had to Crusaders' other two hits.
- Belmont Abbey scored three runs in the first, but saw Converse tally three in the third. Laing put the Crusaders ahead again with a sacrifice fly in the fourth, then tied the game at 7-7 with a three-run blast in the sixth.
- Converse took advantage of the international tiebreaker format with the eighth with a sacrifice and sacrifice fly in its eighth, while The Abbey had a foulout on a sacrifice and two strikeouts to strand the tying run.
- Garcia, who came on in relief in the sixth, took the loss to fall to 5-8.
UP NEXT
- Belmont Abbey continues its six-game homestand this week tomorrow.
- The Crusaders host Shaw in a non-conference doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
- The contests were originally scheduled for Feb. 13, but postponed by weather.
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