KINGSPORT, Tenn. – The Campbellsville University fought until the very final out Tuesday night in their second elimination game of the day in the Kingsport Bracket of the NAIA Opening Round. 
 
The Tigers came up a run short as they were knocked out of the tournament by Madonna University as the Crusaders closed out a 5-4 win. Campbellsville trailed 5-3 heading into the top of the ninth when they were able to score a run and have the tying run on third base.
 
It was a pair of two out singles from Chris Taitague and Tyson Solis with the ball by Solis being grounded in to left and going the glove of left fielder Nick Sykes, allowing Taitague to score from first and Solis to reach third as the tying run.
 
Early on it was defensive miscues that hurt CU as the first three runs scored by Madonna all came on unearned tallies after one-out errors in each of the first two innings. The Tigers took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first as Bryson Wallet crushed a double scoring both Solis and Taitague, who walked as the first two batters of the game.
 
A Taitague error in the first on a shallow pop fly to right would allow the first Crusader base runner to reach as the inning continued it was a two-out two-RBI single from Stephen Parker to tie the game at 2-2. In the second, a throwing error charged to Tony Fonzo allowed a one-out runner, who eventually scored the go-ahead run on another two-out RBI hit.
 
That 3-2 lead for Madonna University was short lived as Tyler Deason crushed a solo home run out to right field to tie the game at 3-3. It was the third home run of the Opening Round for CU but all three came as solo shots as getting runners on was an issue for Campbellsville moving forward in the game against Madonna.
 
The Crusaders led off the bottom of the third with a triple on a ball that was hit deep to center and misread from Solis helped the ball get to the wall for Parker to reach third with no outs. He was singled home by Gordon Ferguson who stole second, was bunted over to third and driven home on a sacrifice fly to make it a 5-3 lead for MU.
 
Madonna starter Victor Mencotti shut the CU offense down after the third going seven innings allowing those three runs on four hits with four walks and nine strikeouts. Mencotti's fourth through seventh innings were answered by the Tigers relief pitchers of Aaron Hutchinson and Gage O'Brien.
 
Hutchinson went nine-up, nine-down over three innings to keep the score at 5-3 and that was slightly matched by O'Brien who also went three scoreless innings but did allow a hit in each of his three innings.
 
As the defending NCCAA World Series Champions, the Campbellsville baseball team declined the invitation to return to the 2019 NCCAA World Series to this loss ended the season for the 2019 Tigers.
 
They finished with a 32-20 record and the program's 10^thMid-South Conference Tournament Championship. They will move forward to the 2020 season losing 10 seniors from this current roster, including six players who were in the starting lineup in tonight's elimination game.