No. 16 Baseball Ends Regular Season with AAC Series Win Against Bryan

DAYTON, Tenn.- After splitting the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) doubleheader on Thursday, the 16th-ranked baseball went on to win the series against the Bryan College Lions on Friday. Tennessee Wesleyan won the final game of the regular season by a score of 18-9. 

Back-to-back singles started the scoring for the Bulldogs in the second inning. Jacob Tolson hit the first of the two, bringing in David Ballenilla for the first run. Jonathan Bosque hit the second single that brought in Brayan Espinoza. 

Back-to-back doubles in the third inning helped the team increase their lead. Josh Shelly hit the first double to get on base and Ballenilla followed with the second double to make Shelly's time on base short. A wild pitch gave Ballenilla not only the time to get to third but the opportunity to score, moving the team's lead to 4-0. TWU led 5-0 at the end of the inning after a Kolton Reynolds home run. 

A momentum shift occurred though as Bryan scored seven consecutive runs between the third and fourth innings. The Bulldogs took back the lead with an eight-run fifth inning.

Espinoza and Hagen Escoto hit consecutive singles that each brought in a run. The biggest hit of the inning came with the bases loaded when Bosque sent a ball flying over the wall, resulting in a grand slam and an 11-7 lead for Tennessee Wesleyan. Allan Gil Fernandez, who scored on an error, and Reece Jordan scoring on Ballenilla's sacrifice fly ended the scoring in the inning for the Bulldog, moving the score to 13-7. 

A three-run sixth inning for TWU started with a solo home run by Espinoza. Michael Sime scored on the next at-bat, an RBI single by Bosque and the team led 16-7 after a Jordan RBI single brought in Bosque. The final two runs of the game for the Bulldogs came in the form of a two-run home run by Ballenilla. 

Bosque finished with a career-high six RBIs in the win. Baylor Homesly was credited with the win.

The win moved the team's record to 34-16 overall and 20-7 in the AAC. The team now moves on to the postseason, where they will be the No. 3 seed in the AAC Tournament. The team will begin the tournament on Tuesday against No. 10 seed Truett McConnell University at 6:00 p.m.