MASON, Ohio - Trevecca Nazarene began the 2014 season as defending Great Midwest Athletic Conference defending champions and they will do the same in the spring of 2015 as the Trojans repeated as conference champions on Saturday afternoon at Prasco Park with their 8-5 win over Cedarville.

Trevecca took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning as Nick Howell singled and later scored on a Luke Fennell double into the left field corner. Then in the middle of the second inning, rain caused havoc on the championship, delaying the game for an hour and 54 minutes and forced the game to be moved from Prasco Park (natural grass) to Legacy Field (turf).

After the delay, Cedarville quickly tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the third as a sacrifice fly by Sam Summerlin plated Cam McWilliams who walked and stole second to get into scoring position.

In the bottom of the third, TNU broke the game open scoring four runs on three hits, highlighted by a Tyler Tichenor RBI triple, two sacrifice flies and a hit-by-pitch RBI. The Trojans added a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth to grab a 8-1 lead through five innings, hoping it was enough to hold off any chance of a rally from Cedarville.

In the previous two elimination games for Cedarville, the Yellow Jackets posted two last-at-bat wins, including coming from behind to score six runs over the final two innings to advance into the finals. In the eighth inning, Cedarville gave a comeback their best shot, scoring four runs on five hits. David Lenhardt’s RBI double was followed by a two-run single from Drew Johnson. However, TNU was able to escape leaving a pair of baserunners standed and holding a 8-5 lead.

The ninth inning for both teams was uneventful, as each team had one baserunner in the inning but a ground ball double play erased any momentum Cedarville had in the bottom of the ninth.

On the mound, John Bolton started and earned the victory for Trevecca, going seven innings while allowing just one run on three  hits. He walked a pair and struck out two. Justin Dailey replaced Austin Sisk in the eighth and pitched the ninth to earn the save, his second of the season.

For Cedarville, Drew Johnson went 2-4 with a run and two more RBI. In six tournament games, he went 12-24 (.500) with six runs scored, 12 driven in, and six extra base hits - including three doubles, a triple and two home runs for 23 total bases.

For Trevecca, Nick Howell, Tyler Tichenor, Luke Fennell, and Jeffrey Scarritt all collected two hits and at least one run and one RBI. Howell scored three times, while Tichenor drove in two. For the tournament, Howell led everyone with a 1.154 slugging percentage and was second in RBI with seven and total bases with 15, despite only playing three tournament games.

The Yellow Jackets finished as tournament runner-up for the second-straight year, this time earning it as the #5 seed, eliminating the #3 and #4 seeds on Friday. In fact after losing their opening game, Cedarville worked harder than any team, eliminated half (three) of its opposing teams in the field. No other team eliminated more than one team.