No. 3 Seed Baseball Wins AAC Tournament Opener Against No. 10 Seed Truett McConnell
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Truett McConnell | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
|
Tennessee Wesleyan | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 18 | 1 |
KINGSPORT, Tenn.- A five-run first inning helped the baseball team win their opening game in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament on Tuesday. The third-seeded Bulldogs beat the No. 10 seed Truett McConnell University Bears 13-3 in a run-ruled seven innings.
Allan Gil Fernandez and Rob Gordon opened the first inning with singles, scoring on a Josh Shelly double to make the score 2-0. David Ballenilla followed with a single that brought in Shelly to move the team's lead to 3-0. After moving to second on Kolton Reynolds' single, Ballenilla scored on a Brayan Espinoza double. Standing on third after the double, Reynolds scored on Ethan Wright's sacrifice fly to give the team their 5-0 lead in the first inning.
TWU added another run in the second inning. Shelly turned his second double into a run, scoring on an error. Truett McConnell scored two runs in the third inning to make the score 6-2.
In the third inning, Fernandez scored on Shelly's third double of the game, moving the team ahead 7-2. The Bulldogs ended the inning leading 8-2 after a double by Ballenilla brought in Gordon. Each team scored a run in the sixth inning with Tennessee Wesleyan's run coming off Shelly's fourth double of the game that brought in Gordon, making the score 9-3.
In the seventh inning, the Bulldogs ended the game with four runs. Reece Jordan started the inning with a single, and eventually became the first run as he scored on Cody McGill's hit. Fernandez brought in the second and third run of the inning with a double that scored both Jonathan Bosque and courtesy-runner Hagen Escoto. Ballenilla helped end the game, hitting a single that Fernandez scored on, giving the team the 13-3 win.
Shelly and Ballenilla both finished with four RBIs in the game. McGwire Taylor got the pitching win.
The win moves the Bulldogs to Thursday's portion of the conference tournament. TWU will play the winner of No. 2 seed Johnson University and No. 8 seed Montreat College on Thursday at 6:00 p.m.