No. 4 Seed University of Mount Olive defeated No. 3 seed Belmont Abbey 7-2 in the opening round of the Conference Carolinas Baseball Tournament in Burlington, N.C. Thursday afternoon. The Trojans will move into the winner's bracket and face the winner of North Greenville/Barton, Friday at 7 p.m.
Mount Olive (26-18) got started on the right foot in the top of the first as Zak Orrison drew a walk to begin the game. Jack Sherrill quickly scored Orrison with and RBI-double to right center and the Trojans took the game's first lead.
Joe Koehler came up with two away and struck for an RBI-single to left center and Sherrill came in to score. David Mayo picked up the second double of the inning and drove in Koehler from first. Three runs were all the Trojans scratched across in the first and jumped out to a 3-0.
Belmont Abbey (34-12-1) struck back in the bottom half of the first with an RBI-single by Weston Clarke and the lead was trimmed to two.
Mount Olive continued cooking in the third and Stephen Wallace led off the inning with a double to left. Wallace moved up to third on a sacrifice fly by Koehler and Mayo drove him in with a ground out to second for the only run of the inning.
Matt McGarry drove in a single run for the Crusaders in the bottom of the seventh on a home run to left field.
Mount Olive closed the door with the final three runs of the game coming in the eighth and ninth innings. Orrison plated a run on a sacrifice fly to left in the eighth and Brett Lang and Wallace went back-to-back with solo home runs in the ninth to seal the win.
Bruce Zimmerman (8-2) picked up the win as he allowed two runs off 10 hits and struck out 10 in his seven innings of work. Dario Santangelo (3) came in for the save and pitched the final two innings surrendering two hits and struck out three.
Mount Olive face the winner of North Greenville/Barton, Friday at 7 p.m. from Burlington, N.C.