Bellevue, Neb. - The No. 2 Central Methodist baseball team saw its season come to and end Tuesday afternoon, as the Eagles fell to No. 4 Concordia, 10-3 in the NAIA Opening Round in Bellevue, Neb. 

The Eagles finish their season with an overall record of 42-15. 

Central jumped out in front in the bottom of the fourth inning, courtesy of a wild pitch from Concorida which scored Cole Luedeking from third. The Bulldogs responded almost instantly with pair of runs in the top of the fifth. But CMU answered right back in the bottom half of the frame on a sacrifice fly from Tanner Sears which scored Bobby Nichols. 

With the game even at 2-2, Concordia and Central battled to the top of the eighth inning, before the Bulldogs plated four runs to take a 6-2 lead. The game was then put on pause for more than three hours due to lightning in the area. 

Concordia's bats remained hot coming out of the delay, as they added four more runs to take a 10-2 lead. 

Entering the bottom of the ninth inning, Robbie Merced chipped away at the lead on an RBI-single to left field to score Nichols from third. But that was all the Central bats could manage, as Concordia held off a ninth inning rally to earn a 10-3 win. 

Nichols finished the day leading the Eagle bats with three hits, a walk, and two runs scored. Luedeking also picked up a pair of hits in five at-bats including a double. 

Senior Beau Atkins got the start in his final appeance in an Eagle uniform, tossing 7.2 innings and striking out seven batters. Sebastian Escobar, Nino Puckett, and Drew Marrufo also saw action on the bump through the final few innings. 

#TakeFlight