KINGSPORT, Tenn.— The No. 6-seeded Montreat baseball team battled the 17^th-ranked and second-seeded Tennessee Wesleyan University Bulldogs Saturday morning for a third and final time at this year's Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament. With a spot in the AAC title game and an automatic bid to the national tournament on the line, the Cavaliers fell on the wrong side of a 7-2 final, ending their season with a 29-25-1 overall record.
 
Daniel Willie showed grit and tenacity on the mound, retiring nine of the initial 10 batters he faced despite pitching on short rest. The Ooltewah, Tenn. native ultimately hurled 5 2/3 innings in his final start as a Cav.
 
Offensively, Montreat capitalized early on a pair of scoring chances to move in front, 2-0. Manny Moore led off the third with a double to right before coming around to score on Jaider Morelos' sacrifice fly. In the top of the fourth, Mitch Ball's single set the table for Jeff Cardazzone to bring him home via a 2-out RBI base knock.
 
Tennessee Wesleyan (36-16) settled in after the Cavaliers applied pressure in the opening stages of the matchup. A 3-run bottom of the fourth that featured two homers put the designated home team in front by one. From there, the Bulldogs tacked on insurance runs during their final three innings at the dish, expanding their newfound lead up to 7-2 entering the ninth.
 
Like it did all tournament long, Montreat continued to fight. Unfortunately for Cav fans, the squad's exhilarating run ended with a 7-2 defeat at the hands of No. 17 TWU. The Cavaliers concluded their time in Kingsport as one of the final four remaining teams at the AAC Tournament, an accomplishment which is believed to be the program's first since 2007.
 
"This week meant a ton to us," said head coach Jason Beck. "We actually got to see the culmination of what we've been working on all year come to fruition. At the end of the day, we saw a group come together, trust the coaches and do some things this team had never done before. For that, I'm grateful and proud."
 
Six different Montreat batters tallied a hit in the defeat, and six different relievers combined to tally the final 2 2/3 innings pitched. Morelos and Cardazzone notched RBIs during the contest, while Moore and Ball scored runs.
 
The Montreat baseball team ends its 2024 campaign with a 29-25-1 overall record, its third consecutive winning season. It is the first instance in which the program has achieved three straight winning campaigns since 2007-09.