Jonathan Bennett, Athletic Director and Head Men's Basketball Coach at Montreat College, announces today that Mike Bender will be the Head Baseball Coach for the Cavaliers next season. Bender will take over the vacant position from former Head Coach Travis Little. Bender has been the Assistant Baseball Coach at Montreat College for the last six years.

Bennett says, "Mike's loyalty to this institution, to the Athletic Department, and to the young men on that team is unparalleled. He's got a great baseball mind, and has the respect from players and opposing coaches."

Just because the spring semester is over doesn't mean our baseball coaches and players have had enough. This summer, many of our Cavaliers will be playing semi-professional ball all over the nation. Most notably, Assistant Coach Mike Bender will be coaching the Fort Collins Foxes out in Colorado during the break. He won't be alone though -- he will have some Cavaliers in Foxes uniforms and filling out his roster too. Ace Cavalier pitcher Garrett Jones will be on the mound for the Foxes, and the Duckworth twins, Cameron and Casey will be at the plate out in Fort Collins.

To read more, check out the following article: http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090529/SPORTS/905290330/1006/SPORTS/Foxes+bringing+a+bit+of+N.+Carolina+to+Fort+Collins

KINGSPORT, TN (May 5, 2009)  -- It has only been 56 hours since the Montreat College and Milligan College baseball teams battled through 12 innings of play on Saturday in the opening round of the AAC Baseball Tournament.  The Buffs finished on top 10-6 in that game. 

With Milligan's loss to Tennessee Wesleyan yesterday and Montreat's win over Covenant, these two teams met again on Tuesday morning in a 10:00 am start. 

Aaron Hughes, who started the mound for Montreat went three up and three down in the top of the first.   With two outs by Lucas Martin and Jesse Wise, Montreat's Casey Duckworth reached first on an error by shortstop Brian Busby.  Steven Hoyle would end the inning with a ground out to first.

With one out in the top of the second, Milligan's Ricky Morgan singled past Daniel Benner, but would be picked off by Hughes.  Hughes would then strike out Dallas Crouch to end the inning.

Junior Josh Ashton would reach first on a walk by Ray Shawn.  Cam Duckworth and Daniel Benner both flied out, and Ashton would be forced out on a fielder's choice by J.J. Estevez to end the second inning still scoreless.

To start the third inning for the Buffs, Todd Caldwell singled up the middle, but would be forced out on Brandon Murphy's fielder's choice.  Randy Rabon and Spencer Street both flied out to end Milligan's at bat.

With two outs by Bartlett and Martin, Casey Duckworth singled to center field for Montreat's first hit of the game.  During Jesse Wise's at bat, Duckworth would be caught stealing by Murphy to end the inning.

To start off the fourth inning for Milligan, Justin Motte hit a double to left center. Busby flied out to center, but would advance Motte to third base. Oxley would reach first on a fielder's choice, but Estevez would throw out Motte at home to save the run.  Morgan would double to left center and score Oxley for the first run of the game to give Milligan a 1-0 lead. Crouch would end the inning with an out to center field.

At 10:50 the game was stopped due to a rain delay and resumed at 1:15.  In the bottom of the fourth, Milligan started Frank Newcomb as their new pitcher, coming in for Ray.  With one out, Steven Hoyle singled to left center.  Cam Duckworth reached first on single to third and advanced Hoyle to second base.  Jacob Suttles came in to pinch run for Hoyle. Benner singled past the shortstop to send Suttles to third.  Suttles went ahead and tried to make it home to tie the game, but was thrown out by leftfielder Eric Oxley to end the inning.

For Montreat, Aaron Hughes stayed in to pitch.  Hughes walked the first Buff's batter, Todd Caldwell.  With a full count, Murphy singled up the middle to advance Caldwell to third.  Wise would later throw Murphy out stealing second.   With a 3-1 count on Rabon, Montreat's side armer, Brian Greene came in to relieve Hughes.  Greene walked Rabon and with a 1-2 count, Street hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Caldwell and Milligan up 2-0. Motte would advance Rabon to third and reach first on an error by Estevez. Busby's single to center would score Rabon and put the Buffs up 3-0. Oxley reached on a fielder's choice that forced Motte out at third to end the inning. 

Milligan's defense made quick work of the Cavs' Estevez, Bartlett, and Martin in the bottom of the fifth inning.  It was the same story for the Cavs the rest of the game, as Daniel Benner was the only Cavalier to muster out a hit the remaining four innings.
Milligan would go on to defeat the Cavs 4-0.

For Montreat on the mound, Aaron Hughes went 8.2 innings and gave up two runs off of five hits, while teammate Brian Greene gave up two runs off of four hits over 3.2 innings of play.  Senior Garrett Jones would pitch his last inning of his Cavalier career and give up one hit and strike out one batter.

Montreat College baseball finishes the 2009 season with a record of 32-19.