The winningest baseball manager of all-time, Connie Mack, won five World Series leading the powerhouse Philadelphia Athletics.  He coached his teams to 3731 wins.  He also coached his teams to 3948 losses.  That's right: perhaps the greatest manager in major league history had a losing record for his career.  Baseball has a way of evening things out.

So, even as the Montreat College baseball team dropped two out of three on the road against a solid Milligan College team to open play in the Appalachian Athletic Conference, Coach Mike Bender could remind his troops that a baseball season offers another day, another game to even things out.

On Saturday, March 6, Seth Blevins pitched 5-1/3 innings without allowing an earned run to collect the win as the Cavaliers defeated the Buffaloes 5-2.  Jordan Sells' 2 RBI and Adam Speas' 2 hits and a run driven in sparked the offense while Blevins outshone a fine effort from Milligan's starting pitcher, Mike Gallo.

Bender watched as his team pushed all five runs across the plate in the second inning to raise their record to 1-0 in conference play and 5-6 overall.

Unfortunately, that big second inning did not create momentum as Milligan downed the Cavs 3-0 in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader.  The shutout loss meant that the Cavs posted 16 straight scoreless innings against the Buffalo pitching staff, as Milligan's Shawn Ray allowed only 3 hits over 7 strong innings to even the series at 1-1.  Ricky Morgan's bases-loaded triple in the 5th accounted for all the game's scoring.

The Sunday game - and final game of the set - did not resemble Game 2 as the teams combined for 15 runs in a 10-5 Milligan victory.  Though every Montreat starter had at least one hit, and Cody Moliterno's 2 hits and Geno Sanchez's 2 RBI stood out, the Cavs could not match the monster 10-run 7th inning posted by the Buffaloes.

Montreat starter T.J. Fussell threw well, pitching into the seventh inning and allowing 2 earned runs while striking out 9 batters.  Bender went to his bullpen when Fussell ran into trouble in the 7th, and the bullpen ran into trouble against Ricky Morgan and the rest of the Buffalo batsmen.

The two losses dropped Montreat's conference record to 1-2 and their overall mark to 5-8.  Montreat has a chance to reverse their fortunes as they travel to Southern Wesleyan University for one game on Wednesday, March 10 at 2:00 and then head to Kentucky to play the Bulldogs of Union College in a three-game weekend series.

The pendulum swung back this week as Montreat College's baseball team lost three of four contests after sweeping a weekend series in late February.  The 1-3 week left Coach Michael Bender's Cavaliers with a 4-6 record and some disappointment after dropping one-run decisions in their last two games.

On Tuesday, February 23, Montreat took a very short road trip and faced local rival Mars Hill College.  The Cavs built a tenuous 3-0 lead behind good pitching and Adam Speas' offense as the senior had an RBI double and two hits total.  But the Lions erupted over the final three innings to record a 7-3 win as Steven Hoyle took the loss.

The final weekend of February saw Southern Virginia University visit Montreat for two games on Saturday, February 27.  Two evenly-matched teams settled for a 1-1 record in two games decided by one run each.  Montreat won the opener 3-2 as Jonathan Madera pitched five strong innings, allowing both Knights runs, before Brian Greene relieved Madera and picked up the win with two shutout frames.  Speas and Hoyle generated the offense as they combined to go 5-7 from the plate with 3 RBI.

Game 2 came down to a successful suicide squeeze bunt which the Knights executed to score the final run in a 4-3 win.  The unlucky loser of the game was pitcher Seth Blevins.  Adam Speas continued to wield a hot bat, collecting three more hits and another RBI.

Bender recognized highlights despite the tough loss, noting that sophomore pitcher David Flanagan returned from Tommy John surgery and pitched well despite taking the loss, and that Speas raised his Appalachian Athletic Conference-leading batting average to .600 with his 5-hit day. 

On Monday, March 1, Montreat endured another close defeat when they traveled to Greensboro to face Guilford College.  Despite Cameron Duckworth's first home run as a Cavalier, a two-run shot, and even though the Quakers couldn't keep Dustin Bartlett off the base paths as he collected two hits and two walks, Guilford held on for a 5-4 win behind Will Cornelius' two homers, the second of which provided the winning margin.

Bender's team heads to eastern Tennessee this weekend to play their first AAC games of the season as they face Milligan College twice on Saturday, March 6 and once more on Sunday.  The first pitch of Saturday's doubleheader is 1:00.

Maybe it was pent-up energy after facing so many rain-outs or frustration at starting the season poorly, but something inspired Montreat College's baseball team as they took the field for a weekend series against Salem International University and delivered a powerful performance in a three-game sweep of the overwhelmed Tigers.  Wins by the scores of 13-0, 5-1, and 7-2 evened the Cavaliers' record at 3-3 and erased memories of a discouraging first few weeks of the season.

Playing on the home field of the Hickory Crawdads due to the muddy conditions in Montreat caused by weeks of rain and snow, the Cavaliers were finally able to take the field after facing six consecutive weather-related postponements that had kept them from playing a game since January 31st.  

In the first game at L.P. Frana Stadium in Hickory, pitcher Seth Blevins, a junior from Georgia, pitched 6 innings and recorded 5 strikeouts while allowing zero runs to earn the win.  Steven Hoyle and Chris Allen were both 4-4 from the plate and each drove in 2 runs.  Cam Duckworth found the gaps in the outfield as he reached base on a double and a triple.  

First-year Head Coach Michael Bender was pleased to see the offense produce, but the pitching and defense were particularly stellar in this game as Blevins and the bullpen allowed only 4 hits and the infield turned 5 double plays.

Game 2, the second of a Saturday doubleheader, was dominated by pitcher Jonathon Madera, a junior from Santiago, Dominican Republic, whose complete game 2-hitter featured 12 strikeouts and paved the way for a 5-1 Cavalier victory.  Hoyle also remained hot, collecting 3 more hits and 2 more RBI.  

If not for the classic pitching on display from Madero, senior shortshop Geno Sanchez may have stolen the show in game 2.  He certainly stole everything else, swiping 6 bases over the course of the two games.  

The two teams returned to Frana Stadium for a final game on Sunday, and again Montreat College controlled the proceedings, claiming a 7-2 win behind T.J. Fussell's effort, as his 6 innings on the mound yielded 5 strikeouts and his first win as a collegiate pitcher.  Casey Duckworth was 2-4 and Adam Speas went 2-3 with a double and an RBI to help complete the sweep.  

Montreat had started the season poorly, losing three games to Thomas University by a combined score of 30-8 (most of that deficit coming in one 0-18 hammering on January 30).  Finally given a chance to return to the diamond, the Cavaliers not only evened their season record at 3-3, they also wiped out a -22 run differential by outscoring the Tigers by exactly 22 runs, 25-3.  Funny what a little sunshine - and a three-game sweep - can do to a team's outlook.

Congratulations go, as well, to Coach Bender, who earned his first three wins as a manager on the college level.  

Bender's team next takes the field for one game on Tuesday, February 23 when they make the short drive over to Mars Hill to face the Lions at 2:30.