CHAMPIONSHIP BOUND! No. 3 Seed Baseball Outduel No. 8 Seed Cavaliers
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Montreat (NC) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 2 |
|
Tennessee Wesleyan | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | X | 11 | 19 | 0 |
KINGSPORT, Tenn.- The baseball team is heading to the Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament Championship game! The third-seeed Bulldogs earned the trip with their 11-4 win against the eight-seeded Montreat College Cavaliers.
Similar to their game against the Cavaliers the night before, 16th-ranked TWU scattered runs over the beginning innings. Instead of scoring one run in each of the first three innings, the Bulldogs hit a line score of two, five, one and one over the first four innings.
Rob Gordon opened the hitting with a triple and was joined on base by David Ballenilla and Kolton Reynolds, who both got on with walks. A single by Brayan Espinoza resulted in a throwing error, allowing Gordon and Ballenilla to score, giving the team a 2-0 lead.
Ethan Wright started the five-run second inning with a solo bomb. Josh Shelly sent the first pitch he saw in the inning to left field for a single, scoring Allan Gil Fernandez. Ballenilla and Reynolds hit back-to-back balls to left field, resulting in Gordon, Shelly, and Ballenilla all scoring to move the lead to 7-0.
The one run the third innings was scored by Wright. This time the run came off a Fernandez single, pushing the team's lead to 8-0. Shelly put the team ahead 9-0 when he scored on Reynolds' RBI double from second.
With Fernandez and Gordon on base, Shelly hit a doulble that brought in both the runners, gaining back two of the three runs from Montreat since they scored three runs in the top of the fifth, making the score 11-3. Montreat was able to score one more run in the ninth, but the Bulldogs did not let them pull closer in the 11-4 win.
TWU (38-14) will play the championship game on Saturday against AAC rivals Bryan College. Along advancing to the championship game, the appearance in the championship contest gives the Bulldogs an automatic bid to the 2026 NAIA Opening Round for the 17th consecutive season. TWU is one of only two teams to qualify for every opening round. The game against the No. 6 seed is set to begin at 1:00 p.m.