KINGSPORT, Tenn.— The Montreat baseball team took on the eighth-seeded St. Andrews University Knights in the elimination round of the WinWon Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Baseball Tournament on Wednesday. The 10
th-seeded Cavaliers won 2-1 in a close battle with an intense ending.
In the top of the second, the Cavs scored the opening run when
Jason Brulport was intentionally caught stealing while
Manny Moore sprinted home from third. The double steal attempt was executed to perfection as Moore plated the run before Brulport was tagged for the final out of the inning.
Montreat (21-31, 11-19 AAC) added to its advantage in the top of the seventh frame.
Zeb Marquis smashed a baseball into the right-center gap.
Devon Smith sprinted from first all the way home to score. The Cavs were unable to get any more runs in the frame, but they doubled their lead in doing so.
SAU (25-22, 12-17 AAC) got one run back in the ninth from a sacrifice fly to deep center field. The Knights had the tying run at third and the winning run at second base later in the frame. The Cavs were able to close out the game with a
Hunter Rast strikeout, securing the 2-1 tournament win in the process.
Ryan Henrickson got the nod and shoved against the Knights. He pitched eight shutout innings, allowing just five hits. He struck out five SAU batters in his second win of the year. He did not walk a batter either.
Hunter Rast entered the game in the top of the ninth and secured the save. He allowed one run to score from one hit. He walked two Knights while striking the final St. Andrews batter.
Dean Davis had a day at the dish, going 3-for-3 with a walk to reach base in all four of his plate appearances. Marquis,
Jaider Morelos,
Justin Austin,
Blake Watts and
Manny Moore all registered a hit in the contest. Marquis had the only RBI for the Cavs.
Tommy Ramos was the only Cav to steal a base.
Montreat had eight hits in the win, two of them going for extra bases. The Cavs left nine runners on the bases. They struck out five times and walked five times as well.
"
Ryan Henrickson did a phenomenal job shortening the pen for us today," said head coach
Jason Beck. "He gave us eight innings, and we were hoping to get six out of him. We let Zeb swing away, and he had a clutch hit for us. We wanted to give him a chance to get out of the little slump he was in."
The Cavaliers will play another elimination game tomorrow at 3 p.m. against the fifth-seeded Bryan College Lions at Hunter Wright Stadium.