(PHOTO by Antonio Lockhart)

FLORENCE, SC – Senior right fielder JD Crowe connected on his team-leading second home run of the season, but the Francis Marion University Patriots dropped their first game of the season, falling 4-3 to Belmont Abbey College in 10 innings on Wednesday (Feb.17) night.

FMU entered the contest looking to set a new mark for best record to start a season. Francis Marion used a two-run seventh inning to claw back and tie the game 3-3 and eventually send it to extra innings.

The Patriots (8-1) will open up Peach Belt Conference play with a trio of games this weekend against Armstrong State University in Savannah, Ga., beginning with a 1:30 p.m. start on Saturday (Feb. 20). The same two teams will square-off in a doubleheader on Sunday with the first pitch set for 11 a.m.

Crowe would extend his streak of safely reaching base to 41 games with a two-out solo home run in the bottom half of the first inning. Seven Patriots collected a hit in the contest, with the first six batters in the lineup accounting for six of them. Senior left fielder Casey Clauss finished the game 1-for-4 and drove in his team-leading 12th run of the season. Senior center fielder Shuler Ward added his eighth RBI with a sacrifice-fly in the bottom of the seventh inning.

FMU freshman Connor Pate made his first collegiate start against the Crusaders, tossing 1.3 innings. Pate wouldn't factor into the final decision of the game as he allowed three runs (two earned) on two hits, while walking three batters and striking out none. Fellow freshman right-hander Cole Hinnant would have his number called upon with one out in the second inning and the bases loaded.

Trailing 1-0, Belmont Abbey (6-3-1) would plate three runs in the top of second inning to take a 3-1 lead. After recording the first out of the inning, Hinnant issued a bases loaded walk to junior third baseman Nick Nunziato, putting the Crusaders on the scoreboard. One batter later, senior Weston Clarke delivered a single to right field that would plate a pair of runs and cushion the lead.

BAC freshman righty Parker MacPhail did his best to hold the Patriots offense at bay through the early portion of the game. He would exit the game after tossing 3.2 innings of one-run baseball.

Clarke paced the Crusaders offense with a 3-for-5 effort and two RBIs in the clean-up spot. Ross Garrett (4-0) earned the win in relief, while senior right-hander Kyle Halbohn notched his second save of 2016 by working a scoreless bottom of the 10th inning.

Senior second baseman Cole Morris and the Patriots used the seventh-inning stretch to build some momentum against the Crusaders. Morris would take a pitch off his back to start the home half of the frame. Junior infielder Antonio Pino made the most of his first at-bat, delivering a double down the left field line and advancing Morris to third base. After a sacrifice fly from Ward made it 3-2, Clauss legged out an infield single to allow Pino to score from third base and tie the game up.

With the game in the hands of both bullpens, the contest would remain deadlocked through the ninth inning and require an extra frame to decide a winner. FMU would turn to the bullpen one final time after junior right-hander John McGinty issued a lead-off walk to start the 10th. Senior right-hander Brandon Cook entered and surrendered a single to the first batter he faced before using his right heel to assist on the first out of the inning at first base. With two outs in the inning and the bases loaded, Cook delivered a 2-1 pitch that would hit the batter and force in the go-ahead run to make it 4-3.

The Patriots' looked to rally in front of the home crowd in the bottom half of the inning, but would run out of steam as they were retired in order to end the game. McGinty suffered the tough-luck loss to even his record on the season at 1-1. FMU's pitching staff, which had been fairly accurate in delivering strikes to the plate walked 11 Crusaders in the game.