May 5, 2004

Men’s baseball falls to Belhaven College, 4-3

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The University of Mobile (21-25) fell to Belhaven College, 4-3, Wednesday afternoon in the first round of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament played in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Belhaven, who trailed 1-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, scored four runs in the inning, two of which were unearned and held off a Mobile rally in the top of the ninth to preserve the 4-3 win.

Leading off the top of the ninth inning, Josh Banashak doubled down the right field line.  After a walk to Ricky Smith, Raul Santana reached on an error loading the bases with nobody out.

Ricardo Rolle then singled to center field scoring Banashak and Smith from second base and leaving two runners on base with still nobody out.  However, the next batter, Ron McMillan hit into a hard-luck line drive double play and J.C. Santana closed out the game by harmlessly flying out to center field.

With the loss, the Rams are forced to win today’s game against no. 1-seeded and host team William Carey College in order to stay alive in the tournament.  That game will follow today’s first game between Spring Hill College and Loyola University and should begin at approximately 3:30 p.m.

John Price, the starting pitcher for Mobile, went 6.1 innings giving up just one unearned run on four hits, walking four batters and striking out another four.  Price took the loss and fell to 8-3 on the season.

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Click here for scores from the tournament: http://www.gcaconf.com