COLUMBIA, S.C. – Coming off a conference sweep over Montreat College over Easter weekend, CIU baseball looked to continue their Appalachian Athletic Conference win streak, starting a conference series with Milligan University on Friday. Milligan entered the contest fresh off a win over No.1 Tennesee Wesleyan last Saturday. It is a pivotal series as the Rams and Buffs are jostling for position in the conference standings. Milligan (22-14) would strike the first blow of the weekend as the Buffs defeated CIU 5-3 in game one. With the loss, CIU moves to 17-20 overall and 9-19. 

How it happened: Milligan got on the board in the 1st inning scoring on a sac fly. Later in the inning, Grant Bodison would even the score at 1-1 after an error by the Buffs on a Kody Trujillo pop fly. Milligan would add two more runs in the 2nd inning, but the Rams would rally. Joshua Hernandez stepped up in the bottom of the 2nd, hitting a two-RBI double, which scored Carter Willis and Rafael Gonzales. Both teams' bats fell silent until the top of the 6th when Milligan took the lead on a two-RBI single. CIU's only hit from that point on came off a Robert Bell single in the bottom of the 8th. The Rams would go three up and three down in the bottom of the 9th and drop Friday's game to Milligan.

Game Notes: 

• Robert Bell and Joshua Hernandez each went 2-4 while Hernandez notched two RBI's.
• Kody Trujillo recorded CIU's other RBI going 1-4. 
• Carter Willis added a stolen base to his season total while also contributing a hit. 
• Justin Parish threw seven innings, giving up five runs and eight hits while picking up a strikeout. 

Up Next:

CIU will face Milligan in a doubleheader beginning at 11 AM.