PEARL, Miss. - The Belhaven Baseball team saw their Opening Day rally fall short on Tuesday as they were beaten by Rhodes College 7-5.

The Blazers found themselves in a steep hole early on as the visiting Lynx struck for five runs in the Top of the 1st inning including a three-run home run. Despite the offensive outburst to start the game though the Blazers were able to right the ship and slow down the Rhodes' bats.

The Belhaven bats got a bit of a slow start after being set down in order during the first two frames but roared to life for a three-run Bottom of the 3rd inning. Kyle McLaughlin scored the first run for Belhaven on a double by Grayson Doss who then scored on Nick Lucido's base hit. Aubrey Gathright finished the frame with an RBI double and the Blazers trailed just 5-3 after three innings.

The Blazers continued to chip away at the Rhodes lead scoring a run in the Bottom of the 5th on Nathan Herron's sacrifice fly to score Todd Goudeau. In the Bottom of the 6th the hosts tied the game when Grayson Doss drove in Matthew Charbonnet on a ground ball on the infield.

Brett Sanchez continued to cruise after bouncing back from the rough first inning. The starter ended with seven innings of work and 11 strikeouts with Logan Goodreau entering the game in relief. Goodreau got the Lynx in order during the Top of the 8th inning but the visitors were able to score a pair of two-out runs to take the lead in the final inning.

BELHAVEN PITCHERS

Brett Sanchez - 7.0 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 11 K
Logan Goodreau (L, 0-1) - 2.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 K

BELHAVEN BATTING LEADERS

Kyle McLaughlin - 2-2, BB, RBI
Grayson Doss - 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI, R
Nathan Herron - 1-3, 3B, RBI

The Blazers will return to action next Friday when they travel to Conway, Arkansas to take on Hendrix College in a two-game set. 

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