CLEVELAND, Ga.— In the first game of their three-game set, the Montreat baseball team dropped a 5-0 decision to the Truett McConnell University Bears on the road Thursday evening. With the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) result, the Cavaliers fell to 18-14 (5-8 AAC) for the year.
 
Truett McConnell (13-10, 7-6 AAC) utilized a pair of walks and a pair of hits, including a bases-clearing double, to grow a 3-0 advantage over the Cavs in the initial frame.
 
Though Montreat found early hits over the first three innings, the visitors had trouble moving runners around the bases. The Cavaliers, who went just 2-of-14 at the plate with runners on base over the course of the game, left five players on through three innings, which proved fatal for the team. Two-out hitting also played a role in the outcome of the matchup as the home team had four hits in 11 at-bats in the situation and Montreat went 1-for-10 with two gone.
 
After the Bears added another two runs in the bottom of the fourth to go up 5-0, the Cavs got singles from Rafael Padilla and Chase Bruno in the fifth; however, Montreat stranded two more in the inning as the squad failed to advance in an attempt to shrink its deficit. The duo of Padilla and Bruno combined for five of the Cavaliers' seven hits in the contest with the former going 3-for-4 and the latter recording two hits in his three appearances at the dish.
 
Chase Swygert pitched 1.1 hitless frames in relief, striking out three TMU hitters, while Robert Fernandez got the final two outs for the Cavs in their five-run defeat.
 
Baseball continues its series with a doubleheader against the Bears on Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m.