DAYTON, Tenn.— Beginning its final Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) series of the regular season Thursday evening, the Montreat baseball team traveled to Dayton, Tenn. for a scheduled 9-inning affair versus the Bryan College Lions. While the Cavaliers pushed across the matchup's opening run, the Lions' bats ultimately powered BC to a run-rule shortened 15-5 victory. As a result, Montreat dropped to 25-22-1 (14-13 AAC) on the year.
After a scoreless initial frame,
Manny Moore put the visitors in front with a 2-out RBI single in the top of the second; however, the hosts came right back with a run-producing base knock of their own during the ensuing half inning to keep the contest level through two.
Bryan (24-19, 15-12 AAC) remained hot offensively as it scored in seven consecutive frames, including five crooked numbers. The Lions launched six homers and notched nine extra-base hits as they plated a total of 15 runs.
Tommy Ramos clobbered his 17
th blast of the season, a 2-run shot, to cut the Cavs' deficit down to 10-3 in the top of the sixth. The moonshot moved Ramos into fourth place on Montreat baseball's single-season home run leaderboard.
Michael Bell and
Jaider Morelos registered solo shots on back-to-back pitches in the top of the seventh, trimming the gap to 11-5. Unfortunately for Cavalier fans, the hosts scored twice in both the seventh and eighth frames, including a pair of solo shots in the final inning to walk off on the visitors in the run-rule shortened contest, 15-5.
Mitch Ball, Ramos and Moore each batted 2-for-4 as the trio combined for six of Montreat's 10 hits. Ramos (2 RBIs) was the lone Cav to drive in multiple runners, while five different Cavaliers scored in the defeat.
Hunter Rast tossed 2/3 innings as he was the only Montreat pitcher to have a scoreless outing.
The Montreat baseball team wraps up its regular season tomorrow afternoon with two more contests at Bryan College. First pitch of the doubleheader is slated for 1 p.m. in Dayton, Tenn.
