Box Score JACKSON, Miss. – The Belhaven baseball team held on for a 9-8 win over Oklahoma City University in game two of the Jackson Bracket in the 2014 NAIA National Championship Opening round. The third seeded Blazers powered past the second seeded Stars with a seven run fourth inning. Belhaven will advance to play Oklahoma Wesleyan or Houston-Victoria in the winner's bracket Tuesday at 2:30 PM.
 
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"We had one big inning when we needed it and we were able make the lead stand up," Belhaven Head Coach Hill Denson said. "We didn't hit a lot of things hard, but a few fell in for us and we'll take it. Whoever we play tomorrow will be tough so we will have to be ready."
 
Belhaven (41-19, 1-0) jumped out in front with two runs in the top of the second before Oklahoma City countered with one in the first and two in the second. The Stars led 3-2 until the fourth when the Blazers changed the complexion of the game.
 
Belhaven scored six of the innings seven runs after two men were out with the clutch hit coming off the bat of Josiah Richard. Richard dropped a single down the right field line plating James Peterson for the go ahead run with two outs. Emilio DeSilva followed with a two run single, Paul Pickerrell picked up an RBI on a base hit to center, and Gabe Wilson capped the scoring with an RBI single to left.
 
Trailing 9-3, Oklahoma City chipped away at the Belhaven lead with one in the fifth two in the seventh, and two more in the eighth. Forrest Smith was responsible for the two runs in the seventh with his 18^th home run of the season to dead center field. Kyle Lacy drove in a pair in the eighth with a base hit to center field.
 
Belhaven reliever Josh Rogers got the final out in the eighth and stayed on to work the ninth inning. The first two hitters in the inning reached for the Stars before Rogers struck out Garrett Foster and Chris Valdez. Rogers then notched the save by getting Josh Dickey on a pop up to short to end the game.
 
Tyler Akins pitched 7.1 innings for Belhaven and earned a hard fought victory to go to 4-1 on the season. Akins allowed eight runs on 14 hits with seven strikeouts. The save for Rogers was his first of the 2014 season. His outing covered 1.1 innings of shutout baseball.
 
At the plate, Belhaven was led by DeSilva who went 4 for 6 with three runs batted in. Wilson followed with a 2 for 4 afternoon and two RBI while Richard collected two hits and one run batted in.
 
Brad Wieck (5-5) took the loss after being driven from the game in the fourth inning. Wieck gave up eight runs on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts. Shane Henderson was responsible for the other run in 0.2 innings.
 
Connor Lynch and Jared Baker led the way at the plate for Oklahoma City with three hits each. Baker was also credited with a run batted in. Lacy had two hits and two runs batted in trailed by Smith with one hit and two RBI.
 
The Stars will play an elimination game against Sterling College Tuesday morning at 11:00 AM.