Baseball | 3/22/2009 5:06:42 PM

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - N.C. Wesleyan took the 5-0 lead and the Monarchs could not recover as the Bishops held on for the 5-2 win.

The Bishops (14-11, 3-1) loaded the bases in the first and third innings but Methodist (16-7, 2-2) got out of both unscathed. The Monarchs' third baseman Shawn Lovette caught a line drive and tagged third before firing to second to record a triple play in the third. N.C. Wesleyan had a lead-off single in the fifth before scoring on a wild pitch. Joel Creef reached on a walk and moved around before scoring on a sacrifice fly for the 2-0 lead.

The Monarchs were held hitless by Bishops' pitcher Ben Moore until Brian Halpin singed in the bottom of the fifth. Unable to score, N.C. Wesleyan took over in the sixth and scored two additional runs in the top of the sixth.

N.C. Wesleyan put together two hits in the seventh to extend their lead to 5-0, but Methodist kept battling. Trey Such started a two-out rally in the seventh wiht a single to left center. He moved to second on Halpin's second single of the day and scored on Mike Twichell's single through the left side. The Monarchs couldn't get anything in the eighth, but Brian Inghram kept their hopes alive with a solo home run in the ninth over the fence in left center. Such reached on an error, but the Bishops recorded a double play to finish with the 5-2 win.

Michael Mahaffey pitched the first five and a third for the Monarchs giving up four hits with four strikeouts. Matt Partin and Alex Sholar entered in relief.

Moore pitched the complete game win for N.C. Wesleyan allowing six hits with five strikeouts.

Methodist will travel to Lynchburg on Tuesday for a non-conference matchup with the Hornets at 3 pm.

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