GREENWOOD – The Belmont Abbey baseball team scored six runs in the first inning and held on to claim a 15-9 non-conference victory over Lander Wednesday night at Dolny Stadium.

The Crusaders, who outhit Lander, 14-10, improve to 19-18 overall, while Lander, which committed seven errors, dropped to 20-21.

Robert Taft (3-1) earned the victory for Belmont Abbey with two strikeouts, four walks and three earned runs on four hits in five complete innings.

The Bearcats starter Taylor Alvarez (0-2) took the loss, walking two and allowing two earned runs on one hit in one-third of an inning.

In an unusual first inning which featured three Lander pitchers, the Crusaders took a quick 6-0 lead on RBI singles by Anthony Dimino, Matt McGary, and Colin Rosenbaum, and concluded when Rosenbaum and Levi Wright went home on a double-error by Lander second baseman Zach Giczewski.

The Bearcats trimmed the Belmont Abbey lead to 6-1 in the third after Matt White's sacrifice fly sent Thomas Berry home.

The Crusaders used Kayden Krause's three-run homer to right field to extend their advantage to 9-1 in the third inning.

The Bearcats came up with another run in the fourth to make it 9-2 on John Mangum's RBI single that scored White.

Lander made it 9-4 as Colby Painter belted his sixth homer of the year to lead off the fifth and was followed by Reed Gray's sacrifice fly that plated Colby Lusignan.

Wright's three-run homer to left field sparked a four-run sixth for the Crusaders to go up 13-4.

Lander came back with five runs to trim it to 13-9 in the sixth on back-to-back solo homers by Painter and Lusignan, while Giczewski scored on a passed ball, Mangum went home on a wild pitch and Gray drove in Weston Lawing.

But the Belmont Abbey came back with two runs in the seventh on Dimino's sacrifice fly and Nick Nunziato's RBI groundout to make it 15-9.

For Lander, Painter batted 3-for-3 and Mangum 2-for-4.

The Crusaders were led at the plate by Dimino's three hits, while McGary and Wright had two each.