MONTREAT, N.C.— Playing its third and final game of an Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) series against the Columbia International University Rams on Monday afternoon, the Montreat baseball team couldn't get past the visitors, falling in a close 5-2 ballgame. With the defeat in Montreat, N.C., the Cavaliers slid to 20-17 (7-11 AAC) this season.
 
After three initial scoreless innings in which both teams recorded just a single hit, it was the Rams who etched their way onto the scoreboard first. Columbia International scored the game's opening run in the top of the fourth thanks to a dropped-third strike that escaped all the way to the backstop.
 
In the bottom of the fifth, the Cavaliers utilized OJ Borroto's fifth blast of the season to level the score at one. Then, in the sixth, a Rafael Padilla single set the table for Daniel Wetmore to give Montreat its first lead of the afternoon via a double to left center.
 
Columbia International (13-23, 4-14 AAC) wasn't fazed despite trailing 2-1 entering the final three frames of regulation. The Rams, who had just three hits against a quartet of Cavalier pitchers through six innings, registered four base knocks across the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Those key hits helped the Rams flip a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 lead as the Cavs came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth.
 
Two Montreat runners worked their way aboard in the Cavaliers' final at-bat, but the squad came up empty in terms of run production in the ninth, dropping the series finale at Newell Field, 5-2.
 
Wetmore (2-3) was the lone Cavalier to tally multiple hits, while eight different Montreat batters secured a knock on Monday afternoon. Brandon Russell, who was one of nine Cavs to pitch in the ballgame, started the contest on the mound with two scoreless innings.
 
The Montreat baseball team goes on the road this Friday and Saturday for a three-game conference series at Reinhardt University. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.