No. 1 Seed Baseball Avoids Elimination at NAIA Opening Round

KINGSPORT, Tenn.- The baseball team wrote two different stories on Wednesday. The first story was tumultuous for the Bulldogs as the team fell to the No. 3 seed Columbia College Cougars 7-2. The second story had a happier ending as Tennessee Wesleyan won a slugfest to keep their World Series hopes alive. 

vs. Columbia

A perfect game for Daniel Batcher was broken up by the opponents in the fourth inning. The inning also saw Columbia score three runs to give them a 3-0 lead. The opponents scored four more runs in the seventh inning, putting the Bulldogs in a 7-0 hole. 

TWU got on the board in the eighth inning with a solo home run by Nick Collins. Josh Shelly added the second run of the game for TWU with an RBI single scoring Kruise Newman.

Batcher had nine strikeouts in the game. 

The loss moves the Bulldogs (43-12) to the loser's bracket of the double-elimination tournament, where they would play an elimination game later that evening due to schedule changes from the first day's weather. 

vs. Cumberland

The bracket saw the team face the No. 2 seed Cumberland University Phoenix in an elimination game. The game full of offense saw one of the teams score in every inning but two, including the first five.

Corbin Shaw started the scoring, bringing in Shelly and Daniel Stewart with a single as the bases were loaded. Devin Dixon completed the scoring in the inning with a sacrifice fly, giving the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead. Cumberland scored in the second inning, taking a 6-3 lead.

TWU took back the lead in the third inning. With two outs, Espinoza started a four-run inning on Dixon's double. Kolton Reynolds and Dixon scored on the next at-bat, a Newman single. Newman broke the tie on Geremy Garcia's double, giving the team a 7-6 lead. Cumberland scored five runs in the fourth to take back the lead. 

The Bulldogs got three of the runs back in the fifth inning. Garcia recorded his second consecutive RBI with a single that scored Dixon. A triple by Shelly brought Tennessee Wesleyan within one run as both Newman and courtesy runner Jonathan Bosque scored. 

After a scoreless sixth inning, both teams scored in the seventh inning. TWU scored three runs to take back the lead, starting with a Jack Stevens RBI single that brought in Newman. Espinoza's RBI single brought in Bosque while a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded made the score 13-11 when Stevens scored. Cumberland scored a run in the bottom of the seventh to pull within one run of the lead. 

The final run of the game came in the eighth inning, a sacrifice fly that Dixon scored on by Garcia, giving the Bulldogs a 14-12 win to keep their season alive. 

Garcia led the offense with three RBIs while Shelly, Shaw, Dixon, and Newman each had two RBIs. Wes Butler got the pitching win and Cameron Goffar was credited with a save. 

The win moves Tennessee Wesleyan (44-12) to the championship round of the Kingsport Bracket. The team needs to win twice to take home their eighth Opening Round Title and earn the trip to the World Series that comes along with the title. The first game against No. 3 Columbia College is set for 11:00 a.m. on Thursday.