Box Score JACKSON, Miss. – The Belhaven baseball team took home the 2014 Cowboy Maloney Series trophy on Tuesday night after defeating Mississippi College by a final of 2-1 at Smith-Wills Stadium. The Blazers now stand at 37-15 on the season, while the Choctaws dropped to 17-16.

(Box Score-HTML)
"We got great pitching performances tonight," Head Coach Hill Denson said. "It's been such a struggle for us offensively, but we keep finding ways to win the close ones."

The Blazers started the scoring in the first with an RBI single by catcher Hunter Sutton before the Choctaws tied the game in the fourth. Belhaven added just one more run in the sixth when Emilio DeSilva beat out an infield single that scored Josiah Richard from third.

Belhaven ended the night with ten hits as a team, with contributions from eight players in the lineup. Zack Tucker turned in an impressive performance for Mississippi College, but he ultimately fell to 0-3 on the year despite lasting eight strong innings. Blake Roberts surrendered one hit in the ninth, but managed to prevent the Blazers from adding any insurance runs.

Offensively, the Choctaws connected for seven base hits, highlighted by the three-hit night from center fielder Hunter Bolin. First baseman Marty Stringfellow finished the night as the only Mississippi College hitter with an RBI.

The Blazers used seven pitchers in the final regular season home game of the year, with starter Ben Allison throwing three scoreless frames to open the night. Rayko Bellmas allowed a run in the fourth before Chris Good put up the first of five consecutive zeroes out of the bullpen. Andrew Gunn, Boomer Scarborough, Josh Rogers, and Tyler Akins each hurled a scoreless inning to end the game.

Gunn picked up his fourth victory of the year, while Tyler Akins recorded his 17th save in as many opportunities. With another appearance, Gunn will tie his own school record for most outings in a season, while Akins now stands just two saves shy of the NAIA single season record.

Belhaven will travel to Alabama on Thursday to take on Auburn University-Montgomery in the final series of the year. First pitch of the three game Southern States Athletic Conference series is slated for 6:00.

"We were lucky to win tonight, but we have to keep getting great stuff from our pitchers and eliminate errors," Denson said. "Hopefully we can leave Montgomery with a couple wins and pick up some steam heading into the conference tournament."