Box Score
McKenzie, TN-The Belhaven baseball team wrapped up their spring break trip to Tennessee with a 10-8 victory over Bethel College Wednesday afternoon extending their winning streak to six games. The win also pushes the Blazers overall record on the season to 21-10 while the Wildcats drop to 9-12.

 

Things didn't look good for Belhaven early on as they fell behind 4-0 after one inning of play. Bethel starting pitcher Chris Crenshaw kept the Blazers off the board in the top of the first despite walking one batter and hitting another. The Wildcats struck for four runs in the bottom of the first after two men were out. Bethel put together four consecutive hits with the big blow being a two run homer off the bat of Jonathon Keck to cap the inning.

 

The Blazers countered with a run in the top of the second by drawing three walks and getting a sacrifice fly off the bat of Chanse Cooper to make it 4-1 in favor of Bethel. However, despite the lack of control, Crenshaw was able to wiggle his way off the hook with minimal damage.

 

Belhaven starting pitcher Kyle Hunt settled down in the bottom of the second to keep the Wildcats off the board setting the table for a three run top of the third by the Blazer offense. Belhaven loaded the bases to begin the inning on a single by Timmy Foster, Craig Westcott was hit by a pitch, and then Brent Hudson reached on an error. Crenshaw walked in the first run of the inning on a free pass to Charlie Edwards and following a strikeout of Craig Dean, he walked Brian McCormick to plate Westcott for run number two. The third run came home on a sacrifice fly by Shawn Diehl which knotted the score at 4-4.

 

Bethel regained the advantage in the bottom of the fourth with two runs and then added another tally in the bottom of the fifth to build a 7-4 lead. Will Cripps singled home the runs in the fourth and Keck hammered his second home run of the game in the fifth inning to account for the third run.

 

However, the Blazers didn't take long to answer as in the top of the sixth Belhaven retaliated with four runs to take an 8-7 lead. The Blazers loaded the bases on a walk to Diehl, a base hit by Lake Eiland, and a Wildcat error which allowed Foster to reach safely. Westcott delivered in the clutch driving his fourth home run of the season over the right field wall for a grand slam.

 

Belhaven held the lead until the bottom of the eighth when the Wildcats scrapped together a run to tie the game at 8-8. Bethel had a pair of infield singles off of relief pitcher Riley Galloway and the Blazers had a costly error leading to a bases loaded situation with one out. Galloway went to a full count against Jake Ramsey, but gave up the walk and the tying run. Golden Grasse came into pitch and got the final two outs to work out of the jam keeping the game tied going to the ninth.

 

The Blazers regained the lead for good in the top of the ninth scoring two times after two batters were out. McCormick and Diehl were retired to begin the inning but Cooper was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a passed ball. Eiland then delivered a single to left to bring home Cooper and then stole second base to get into scoring position. Chad Howard stepped to the plate and had a big base hit up the middle off of relief pitcher David Rodriguez scoring Eiland from second to extend the lead to 10-8.

 

Kyle Medley was called upon in the bottom of the ninth and locked down the Wildcat offense to earn his tenth save of the season and preserve the 10-8 win. Grasse got credit for the win in relief as he goes to 2-0 on the season by getting those two big outs in the bottom of the eighth. Rodriguez was tagged with loss for Bethel College.

 

Offensively, the Blazers were led by Westcott who had two hits and 4 RBI's. Cooper, Edwards, McCormick, Howard and Diehl also had an RBI apiece for Belhaven. Eiland and Brent Hudson also collected two hits on the afternoon. Keck led the Wildcat offense with two hits and 3 RBI's.