#17 Baseball explodes in late innings for 26-8 win at Belmont Abbey

Belmont, N.C. —- The 17th-ranked Catawba College baseball team entered the seventh inning in a locked 5-5 road game against regionally ranked Belmont Abbey and exploded from there, scoring 11 runs in the seventh inning and seven more in the eighth to pull away from the Crusaders, winning 26-8 on Tuesday night.

TEAM STATISTICS

- Catawba out-hit Belmont Abbey 24-10

- The Crusaders had four of seven extra-base hits; the Catawba Indians hit two of three homers

- BAC committed two of three errors in the game

- Belmont Abbey left seven runners on base; Catawba stranded nine

- Both teams recorded a stolen base

- The Catawba Indian pitchers allowed eight earned runs on 10 hits and four walks, striking out 12; Abbey's staff allowed 23 earned runs on 24 hits and eight walks, striking out six

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

- Sean Shelly was 4-for-6 with a grand slam, five RBI and five runs scored

- Ty Hubbard went 5-for-6 with five RBI and two runs scored

- Hunter Atkins picked up three hits with a run driven in and four runs scored

- Matthew Connolly added two hits with three RBI and a run scored

- Brandon Rodgers got the win in relief; Seth Sharpe threw two scoreless innings with four strikeouts

HOW IT HAPPENED

FIRST INNING

- Catawba loaded the bases with one out in the first

- Shelly's RBI groundout got the scoring starting

- Belmont Abbey tied it in the bottom half with an RBI double

THIRD INNING

- Sam Hunter singled and stole second in the third before a two-out error proved costly for the Crusaders, as Hunter wheeled around third to score

- BAC once again matched in the bottom half with an RBI single up the middle

FOURTH INNING

- Belmont Abbey took the lead in the fourth on a solo homer

FIFTH INNING

- Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out in the fifth for Catawba

- Connolly's sac fly tied the game once again at 3

- Hubbard's RBI single broke the tie before Dylan Driver brought home another on another sac fly

- The Crusaders once again evened up the game in the bottom half with two RBI base hits

SEVENTH INNING

- Catawba loaded the bases with one out in the seventh

- Connolly drove in one on a base hit before Hubbard brought home two more on a single

- Driver's single scored two more before Shelly's grand slam broke the game open at 14-5

- Connolly and Hubbard both recorded their second RBI base hits in the inning, as Catawba led 16-5 after seven

EIGHTH INNING

- Catawba looked to keep the party going in the eighth, loading the bases with one out

- Atkins and Parker Styborski both brought home on a run to keep the hit train moving

- Colby Taylor and Hubbard walked to bring in two more before a wild pitch scored another and an error scored two more; Catawba led 23-5 after eight

NINTH INNING

- Jack Cuba launched a three-run homer to left center in his first collegiate at-bat, extending the lead to 26-5

- Belmont Abbey got back a trio of runs in the bottom half on a two-RBI double and a wild pitch

GAME NOTES

- Catawba scored 21 runs in the final three innings

- Most runs for Catawba in a single game since scoring 26 vs. Coker in February 2018

- Hubbard was one hit shy of tying the program single-game record of six, done just four times in program history

- Jim Gantt's 1,001st win

UP NEXT

- Catawba heads back on the road this weekend, continuing South Atlantic Conference play with a three-game set at Mars Hill; Friday's opener is set for a 2 p.m. first pitch