Box Score
Jackson, MS-The Belhaven baseball team fell prey to Loyola University losing 5-3 on Thursday night in round one of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament at Smith-Wills Stadium. The Blazers, who are the number one seed and ranked 10th in the latest NAIA Top 25 Poll, could not get on track against pitcher Mike Kelley who shutdown the Belhaven bats en route to a win on the mound and a Wolfpack upset victory.

Loyola (17-28), the number six seed, jumped ahead first with a run in the bottom of the third inning against Riley Galloway. David McChesney sent home courtesy runner Slade Sanders on a sacrifice fly to right field to make it a 1-0 Wolfpack lead. Belhaven (39-14) threatened to score in the third and fourth innings, but could not come up with some clutch hits. Craig Dean opened the third with a leadoff double, but was stranded at third. In the fourth inning the Blazers loaded the bases and once again failed to take advantage of the opportunity to score some runs. Belhaven ended up leaving 13 men stranded on base in the contest.

The Blazers finally broke through with two runs in the fifth to pull in front 2-1. Timmy Foster had an RBI single up the middle chasing home Jimmy Gilford to knot the game at 1-1. Brandon Benton then followed with a single to right field to cash in Lake Eiland giving Belhaven a 2-1 lead. However, the lead was short lived as Loyola came right back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth. McChesney had an infield RBI single followed by a Ryan Scott run scoring single to right field.

Leading 3-2, the Wolfpack tacked on a couple of insurance runs in the seventh on an RBI double by Scott followed by a Caleb Templet RBI base hit to right field and at that point Loyola enjoyed a 5-2 edge. Belhaven tried to mount one last rally in the ninth when Eiland blasted a one out home run over the left field wall to cut the deficit to 5-3. It was Eiland's seventh home run and 45th RBI of the season. Foster followed with a single and Benton just missed a game tying home run on a ball that went just foul down the left field line. Benton ended up with a single to center field which brought the go ahead run to the plate. However, Loyola relief pitcher Kevin Fotenot was then able to get Paul Moreno on a pop up to third base and Derek Tortorich struck out to the end game.

Galloway suffered the loss as he went 6.1 innings allowing all five runs with four being earned on nine hits. He walked one and struck out three as he falls to 1-5 on the season. Golden Grasse pitched 1.2 innings giving up just one hit while striking out two. Belhaven was led at the plate by Foster who went 3 for 5 with one run batted in giving him 62 on the season. Dean, Gilford, Eiland, and Benton all had two hits each with Eiland, and Benton picking up an RBI apiece. Belhaven outhit Loyola 12-10, but only two of the Blazers hits went for extra bases.

Kelly got the win for Loyola as he tossed seven innings with only two runs on eight hits allowed. He walked two and struck out five improving his record to 4-3 this season. Fontenot fired the last two frames to earn his fifth save for the Wolfpack. He gave up one run on four hits while striking out one batter. Scott went 2 for 4 at the plate with two RBI's to pace the Loyola offense. McChesney also had a pair of runs batted in and Templet was credited with the other RBI in the game.

Belhaven will be back in action on Friday morning at 11:00 against the University of Mobile in a GCAC Tournament elimination game at Smith-Wills Stadium. The Rams lost to LSU-Shreveport Thursday 10-4 in their opening round contest. Loyola will move on to face Spring Hill College in the second round Friday afternoon at 2:30. All the play-by-play action can be heard via Stretch Internet through the Belhaven Athletics website starting with the pregame show at 10:45 AM. The GCAC Tournament website with the bracket, game recaps, box scores, and live stats on all the games can be viewed by clicking here.