No. 2 Seed Baseball Wins AAC Tournament Opener Against No. 5 Bryan

KINGSPORT, Tenn.- Six unanswered runs helped No. 2 seed baseball win their Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament opener against No. 5 seed Bryan College on Wednesday. The team beat the conference rival 14-9 to advance in the tournament.

The six consecutive runs came after Bryan scored four combined runs in their halves of the first and second innings. In the bottom of the second inning, the Bulldogs tied the score. 

Corbin Shaw started the inning with a walk and Jack Stevens followed with a double. A single to center field by Devin Dixon cut the deficit in half as both base runners scored. Dixon pulled TWU one run closer by scoring on Kruise Newman's double while Josh Shelly hit a single that scored Newman, tying the score 4-4 at the end of the second inning.

One of the remaining two unanswered runs came in the form of a Kolton Reynolds solo home run in the third inning. Dixon brought in the sixth run in the scoring rally, hitting a single that allowed Shaw to score to give the team a 6-4 lead through three innings.

After seeing the opponents pull withine one run in the fifth inning, Reynolds gave the team back their two-run advantage in the sixth inning, hitting his second solo bomb of the game. Bryan added another run in the seventh inning though. The Bulldogs blew the game open in the eighth inning.

Shelly started a seven-run inning with a two-run home run, bringing in Newman in the process. Tennessee Wesleyan recorded six straight hits in their next six at-bats with four of them resulting in runs. Daniel Stewart and Reynolds had two of the six hits and Shaw recorded the third consecutive hit, scoring courtesy-runner Jonathan Bosque from third with a single. Stevens followed with a single to score Reynolds and Brayan Espinoza hit a single to score Shaw. Dixon hit a double to score the remaining runners, getting the team to the 14 runs they won the game with.

Dixon finished 4-5 from the plate with a career-high five RBIs in the game. Cameron Goffar had five strikeouts in 5.1 innings in the pitching win and Justin Jackson, who entered the game when the Bulldogs led by just one run, struck out three batters in picking up the save. TWU had 21 hits in the game. 

TWU (37-11) will be back on the field at the AAC Tournament at Hunter Wright Stadium on Thursday to face No. 3 seed Johnson University at 6:00 p.m.