No. 3 Baseball Explodes Against Montreat; Clinches 11th Straight AAC Regular Season Title

Black Mountain, N.C.- The baseball team, ranked No. 3 in the NAIA, returned to the field at the home of the Montreat College Cavaliers on Friday. The two teams met to conclude their Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) series with a doubleheader. 

Game One: 

Two home runs in the third inning were responsible for the first runs of the game. Parker Stinnett the first of two, hammering a solo shot to left field to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. Marco Martinez made the score 3-0 after blasting a ball over the center field wall with Carson Ford standing on second. 

In the fifth and sixth inning, TWU increased their lead by 15 runs. Ford reached first on a fielding error and Dan Sayre singled to center field, moving to second on an error while Ford moved to third on the same error. Martinez hit a single to left field to score Ford and make the lead 4-0. Andre Tarver quickly made the score 7-0 with his three-run home over the right-center field wall. Chad Picton hit the fourth homer of the game, and the second of the inning, to increase the lead to 8-0.  

A bases-loaded walk brought Ford home, moved Sayre and Martinez forward a base, and put Tarver on first for run number one of ten in the sixth inning. A fielding error on Cayle Webster's contact kept the bases loaded as Sayre crossed home plate for the second run. The third run came from another walk with the bases loaded as Martinez scored and Evan Magill went to first. A double down the left field line by Jacob Tolson scored runs four, five, and six, as every runner scored to leave second base as the only occupied base. Stinnett hit a single to right field to make Tolson run number seven of the inning and after a walk by Preston Welchel, Sayre hit a bomb over the left field wall to record the eighth, ninth, and tenth runs of the inning, making the lead 18-0. Montreat scored one run in the bottom of the sixth but could not score anymore, and the run rule ended the game in seven innings. 

Tarver led the team with four RBIs while Sayre, Martinez, and Tolson all added three RBIs. Blake Peyton led on the mound with six strikeouts in the pitching win while Jake Sergent added three strikeouts and Turner Mann had one strikeout, both in relief. 

Game Two: 

In the second game of the doubleheader, Cody McGill had the first RBI of the game with his single scoring Webster after his double in the fourth inning. In the fifth inning, after Stinnett reached on a fielding error, Ford hit a double down the left field line that scored Stinnett to move the lead to 2-0. Ford scored on an error caused by Sayre's at-bat and a fielding error on Welchel's at-bat helped Sayre score from third to make the lead 4-0.  

Two home runs in the sixth and seventh innings by Magill and Martinez propelled the Bulldogs to the 6-0 score they went on to win with to sweep the doubleheader and win the series. 

Ford, Martinez, McGill, and Magill each had an RBI in the win. Sam Rochard only allowed one hit in six innings while striking out eight batters. Kyle Bloor struck out two batters in an inning of relief. 

The wins moved Tennessee Wesleyan's record to 37-7 overall and 26-1 in conference play. The first win also clinched the AAC Regular Season Title, the 11th straight season the program has won the regular season title and the 21st season the team has won the AAC Regular Season or Tournament Title. The team closes out the regular season on the road against St. Andrews University, beginning with a doubleheader at