Baseball moves to 1-1 in NAIA Opening Round

WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. – The No. 3 seed Loyola University New Orleans baseball team dropped its first game in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round on Tuesday, losing to the Williamsburg Bracket hosts, top-seeded Cumberlands, 16-8, in the winner's bracket game. Loyola will now face off against No. 4 seed St. Francis on Wednesday at 10 a.m. CDT in an elimination game. 
 

Playing as the visitors, the Patriots struck first with two runs in the first inning, but the Wolf Pack answered with two runs in the bottom half of the opening frame to tie it early. Jaxon Buratt walked and Brandon Mooney singled to start Loyola's rally, and a single up the middle by Marcus Steen during the next at-bat evened the game, 2-2. 
 

The Cumberlands' pitcher, however, settled in and put six straight zeros on the board while his offense scored 12 straight runs to make it a 14-2 deficit for the Wolf Pack. 
 

There wasn't any quit for Loyola, though. Buratt and Mooney, again, started a rally, this time in the eighth inning with back-to-back singles. Steen reached on an infield error to bring home the first run, 14-3, and a fielder's choice off the bat of Nathan Monceaux scored another, 14-4. After the Patriots scored two more in the top of the ninth, 16-4, Loyola tried to pull off the comeback in the final half-inning. Anthony Fernandez had a one-out, pinch-hit single, followed by Buratt, Mooney, Kason Cullins, Steen and Monceaux all reaching base consecutively on two hits, two hit by pitches and a walk. That made the score 16-7, and a balk with a runner on third brought the game to its final score of 16-8. 
 

Pack Facts

• Jaxon Buratt went 2-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored. He's now scored 61 runs this season, tied for the third-most in a season in program history. He's also fifth in season hits with 77. 

• Brandon Mooney also had two hits, going 2-for-4 with two runs scored to give him 75 hits for the season. 

• Kason Cullins, who also went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI, entered the top 10 in career hits. Now with 194 hits in his career, he passes Alexander Lorenzo, Karson Cullins, and Tommy Daigle for eighth on Loyola's career hits list.
   

Williamsburg Opening Round

Monday, May 13
Game 1 | #5 Park 6, #4 St. Francis 1
Game 2 | #3 Loyola 6, #2 Bellevue 2
Game 3 |  #1 Cumberlands 25 #5 Park 0

Tuesday, May 14
Game 4 | St. Francis 6 Bellevue 4
Game 5 | Cumberlands 16, Loyola 8
Game 6 | St. Francis 9, Park 7

Wednesday, May 15
Game 7 | 11:00 AM | St. Francis vs. Loyola
Game 8 | 2:00 PM | Winner of Game 7 vs. Cumberlands

Thursday, May 16
Game 9 | TBD | Winner of Game 8 vs. Loser of Game 8 (If Necessary)
All times Eastern

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