Box Score
Lewiston, ID-The Belhaven baseball team fell to Point Loma Nazarene University 9-1 in their opening game of the 2010 Avista NAIA Baseball World Series on Friday afternoon at Harris Field in Lewiston, Idaho. The Blazers could muster only six hits and failed to take advantage of four Point Loma errors early the game and ended up stranding nine men on the base paths. Point Loma starting pitcher Chad Blauer settled in and struck out 11 Belhaven hitters en route to the victory.

Point Loma Nazarene (39-18-1) took the lead in the bottom of the first inning with a run off Blazers starter Brandt Hinton. Belhaven (43-16) had a chance to score in the top of the first inning as Drew Dillard opened the game with a hit and moved to second with no one out. However, the Blazers could not come up with a key hit and Dillard was thrown out trying to steal third base to end the frame. The Sea Lions then took advantage in the bottom of the first as Tyler Kuehl ripped an RBI double down the right field line to make it 1-0.

Point Loma added two more runs in the fifth and three in the six to extend the edge to 6-0. Steven Winnick had an RBI ground out and Wes Kartch came home for the second run in the fifth inning on an error by Lake Eiland. In the sixth, Rashad Taylor doubled home a run, while Winnick and Kartch slammed RBI singles to make it a 6-0 game in favor of Point Loma.

Belhaven's lone run came in the top of the seventh as Paul Moreno and Drew Dillard opened the inning with singles. Jimmy Gilford followed with a sacrifice fly to left to get the Blazers on the scoreboard and avoid the shutout as Moreno came in from third base on the play. Unfortunately, the Sea Lions were able to put the game away in the eighth with three more runs on three hits. Taylor tallied another RBI on a double to left, Kartch came up with a run scoring base hit to right, and eventually came around to score on a throwing error by third baseman Craig Dean. The Blazers then went quietly in the top of the ninth as Point Loma secured the 9-1 victory.

Blauer ended up going the distance for the Sea Lions as he gave up just one run on six hits while striking out 11. Blauer struck out 16 batters in his last outing against British Columbia in the opening round tournament and was nearly unhittable again on Friday afternoon as he improved to 12-2 on the season. Kuehl, Kartch, and Taylor all had three hits apiece and while Taylor, Kartch and Winnick each had two runs batted in to lead the Point Loma offense.

Hinton suffered the loss for Belhaven as he tossed 7.1 innings allowing all nine runs on 12 hits. Hinton struck out two as he lost for the first time this year and is now 12-1 in 2010. Dillard went 2 for 5 at the plate and Lake Eiland, Timmy Foster, Dean, and Moreno had one hit apiece. Gilford had the only run batted in of the day for Belhaven.

The Blazers will now face Lubbock Christian University in an elimination game on Saturday morning starting at 10:30 at Harris Field. Lubbock Christian lost to Lee University 7-6 on a walk off home run by Jose Cuevas in the bottom of the ninth inning. All the play-by-play action of the Belhaven and Lubbock Christian game can be heard via Stretch Internet through the Belhaven Athletics website starting with the pregame show at 10:20 AM.