KINGSPORT, Tenn.— After advancing in the winners' bracket side of the double elimination portion of the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament on Wednesday, the Montreat baseball team suffered its first setback of the postseason as the No. 6 seeded Cavaliers fell to the No. 2 seed, the Tennessee Wesleyan University Bulldogs, by a score of 13-0 in seven innings Thursday afternoon. With the loss, the Cavs fell to 27-24-1 on the year.
 
Despite one hit in each of the initial two frames by Montreat, Tennessee Wesleyan (35-15) scored twice in the bottom of the opening inning to get on the board first. The Bulldogs, the No. 17 team in the NAIA, then added another two runs in the third to go up 4-0 through three before four straight 2-out RBI hits in the fourth tacked on five more runs as TWU led 9-0 midway through the ballgame.
 
After the Cavs stranded a leadoff double on third base in the top half of the fifth, the higher seed put up their third and fourth crooked numbers in a row to make it 13-0.
 
Five different Cavaliers collected base knocks and the Cavs tallied back-to-back hits to start the sixth, but it wasn't enough to scratch a run across the plate in the run-rule shortened contest as TWU outhit Montreat 15-5. Caleb Abshier, Jaider Morelos and Elijah Stifter each doubled for the six seed in the competition. In relief on the mound, Nate Kiser pitched 1 2/3 frames, allowing just two hits while striking out three, including the first two he faced.
 
Baseball continues its journey at the AAC Tournament tomorrow morning, facing the reigning tournament champions, the No. 10 seeded Union Commonwealth University Bulldogs, at 9 a.m.