GREENWOOD – The Lander baseball team dropped its final home midweek contest of the season on Tuesday night as the Bearcats fell 14-4 to No. 10 Belmont Abbey at Dolny Stadium. 

Lander (13-28) travels to rival Erskine on Wednesday afternoon for a 3:00 p.m. matchup, while the Crusaders (34-9) face the Flying Fleet in a home series Friday and Saturday. 

Belmont Abbey opened the scoring with four runs in the top of the third and tacked on two more in the fourth inning to take a 6-0 lead. 

Lander got on the scoreboard with a solo home run from Nathan Schreckengost, his seventh of the season and third in as many games, in the bottom of the fourth inning, but the Crusaders answered with runs in the fifth and sixth to build an 8-1 advantage.

The Bearcats attempted to rally in the bottom of the sixth as Zack Moore led off with a triple off the centerfield wall and Carson Jones followed with a two-run smash to left field, his 11th long ball of the year. After three consecutive singles, Alex Conaway plated Schreckengost with an RBI groundout to make the score 8-4. However, Lander would miss out on an opportunity to cut further into the lead as the Bearcats left the bases loaded. 

Once again, Belmont Abbey responded, scoring eight unanswered runs over the final three innings to notch a 14-4 victory. 

Sam Luchansky (7-0) earned the win in his first career start for the Crusaders, allowing one run on three hits in 5.0 innings. Tripper Ergle (1-6) took the loss for the Bearcats, surrendering six runs on six hits with three walks and four strikeouts.