MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.— The Montreat baseball team opened its 2024 season Thursday evening with the first game of four against the St. Thomas University Bobcats, a squad receiving votes just outside of the top 25 in the preseason version of the NAIA Baseball Coaches' Top 25 Poll. At the end of the back-and-forth 9-inning competition in Miami Gardens, the home team claimed an 11-6 decision, dropping the Cavaliers to an 0-1 record.
St. Thomas (1-0) notched an early lead with five runs in the bottom of the second; however, the Cavalier offense answered in the ensuing half-inning. Though the Cavs had struck out six times in the opening two frames, Montreat tallied a pair of runs in the top of the third thanks to a sacrifice fly by
Michael Bell and a bases-loaded walk from
Caleb Abshier to pull within three.
As
Daniel Willie settled in on the mound, he didn't allow a hit over a span of nine batters from the third to the fifth frames, setting the table for the Cavalier offense to continue to work. In the top of the fifth,
Collin Nelson plated Bell with a hit through the left side before Abshier launched a ball over the center field fence to knot the score at five.
Three straight extra-base hits gave the Bobcats a 3-run advantage, and STU totaled five runs on six hits in the bottom of the sixth for its second 5-run lead of the ballgame (10-5). Despite a run from the visitors in the seventh, St. Thomas responded to close out the scoring in the 11-6 contest.
Dalton Strickland and
Jordon Hart then each recorded scoreless relief appearances in their Cavalier debuts, but the offense registered only five hits to STU's 13. Five separate Cavaliers combined for the team's hits, while Abshier drove in three runs and
Zeb Marquis scored twice.
"Today was a tough day but a good one at the same time," mentioned head coach
Jason Beck. "We felt we were successful with a bunch of things we were working on. Overall, it didn't lead to the result we wanted, but we felt we accomplished a lot of things and the guys fought throughout the game, which was a positive."
Baseball continues its series versus the Bobcats with a doubleheader tomorrow. Game one is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.