Baseball Wins Third Straight AAC Tournament Title

KINGSPORT, Tenn.- The baseball team is the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament Champion for the third consecutive season and 17th time overall. The team won the title with their 8-2 win against Bryan College on Saturday.

David Ballenilla became the first run fo the game in the second inning. A throwing error allowed Ballenilla to get on first and he scored on a Ethan Wright double. 

In the fourth inning, Kolton Reynolds started the offense with a double to center field. Brayan Espinoza hit a single that Reynolds put the boosters on to get to third. Reynolds gave the team a 2-0 lead by scoring on Jacob Tolson's sacrifce fly. Bryan broke the shutout in the fifth inning, scoring a run to make the score 2-1. Tennessee Wesleyan extended the lead back out in the fifth inning. 

Tournament MVP Rob Gordon scored the first two runs of a three-run fifth for the Bulldogs with a thunderous home run over 410 feet over the center field wall. Ballenilla second run of the game on a Espinoza ground out pushed the lead to 5-1 at the end of the fifth inning. 

TWU added their final three runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Josh Shelly hit a single to right field that brought in Gordon, who wa standing on secound, making the score 6-2. Gordon returned in the eighth inning and hit a double to right field that scored both Reece Jordan and Joanthan Bosque, giving the team the 8-2.

Colton Brumley got the pitching win. 

Along with Tournament MVP Gordon, Reynolds, Shelly, Ballenilla, and Justin Jackson were all named to the All-Tournament Team.

The win was TWU's 40th victory of the season, marking the seventh straight season the team has won at least 40 games in a season (The 2020 season was cancelled midseason). The team also earned one of the conference's automatic bids to the NAIA Opening Round by playing in the championship game. The selection show for the 2026 NAIA Opening Round is set for Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. ET and can be seen here.