SHREVEPORT, La.  – The No. 4 Talladega College baseball team dropped its first NAIA Opening Round game 9-2 to No. 3 Kansas Wesleyan this morning. With the loss, the Tornadoes will play the winner of LSU Shreveport/Concordia (Neb.) later today in an elimination game. Talladega is now 40-17 while KWU improved to 47-10 on the season.

Talladega jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first and it all started when Victor Rivera walked.  He later moved to second after Darlin Fernandez was plunked with no outs. Both runners then moved up 90 feet off Miguel Oropeza's sac bunt to the pitcher.  Rivera later scored off Nomar Garcia's sacrifice fly to right before the inning ended.

Kansas Wesleyan in the bottom of the second pushed two runs across on two hits to take a 2-1 lead and then in the third inning, it plated five runs to push the lead to, 7-1.

Both teams went scoreless for the next three innings but in the bottom of the seventh KWU scored a pair of runs to go up, 9-1

The Tornadoes got a run back in the eighth using a hit by pitch, a walk, and a single to make it a 9-2 game but that is all they would get as KWU held on to win and advance in the winner's bracket.

Starting pitcher Daniel Jose took the loss to fall to 6-3 on the season. He allowed five runs (four earned) on three hits over 2.1 innings of work.

Rivera paced all Talladega hitters as he went 2-for-4 with a run scored and a walk.

Nomar Garcia and Jaylen Mateo had the team's only RBIs