KINGSPORT, Tenn. (May 8, 2014) â€" Though they had their opportunities to score, the Milligan College baseball team only cashed one of them in Thursday at Hunter Wright Stadium as the Buffaloes were knocked out of the Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament with a 3-1 loss to Point University.
 
Point advanced to the conference tournament title game and punched a ticket to the NAIA National Championship. Milligan's season ended with a record of 25-27 (12-15 AAC).
 
Milligan left 10 men on base, including four in scoring position, in the loss. The Buffaloes put runners on the corners with two out in the second inning and again had runners on the corners with one out in the fifth inning but found no way to convert either chance. In the sixth, the first two reached via a Tyler Weir single and a Point error, but the next two went down on strikes before Cody Hyder flew out to end the inning.
 
Point scored its runs off Milligan starter Jake Howell in the fourth and fifth, doubling to lead off each inning then plating a run on an ensuing RBI-single. The Skyhawks punched a second run across in the fifth as Trey Chambers, after driving in teammate Kevin Dawkins, stole two bags and wound up scoring on an infield hit.
 
Milligan broke open the game's scoring in the third when Edwin Soto smacked a two-out, two-strike double to the gap in deep left-center to set up an RBI-single from Brandon Malone. Luke Kirk was caught stealing four pitches prior to Soto's double.
 
Thursday's game was the third time Milligan faced Point in the AAC tournament and sixth time they faced one another over the last month and a half. Point was victorious in four of the meetings, including two of the three that came during the postseason. Milligan's only postseason victory over Point came one night earlier in an elimination game where the Buffaloes outlasted the Skyhawks 10-7 in 13 innings.
 
Thursday's game lasted 2 hours, 3 minutes.
 
Senior Jake Howell, in the first start of his career, threw a career-high seven innings of quality baseball but suffered the loss (1-3). The right-hander was pitted against Dylan Griffin, one of the league's top pitchers who ranked in the national top 10 in strikeouts per nine innings (12.67), and in the top 50 in hits allowed (44), earned runs allowed (16), and total runs allowed (21).
 
Howell struck out two, walked none and gave up seven hits and three (earned) runs. After giving up the two fifth-inning runs, Howell pitched a perfect sixth and seventh.
 
Ethan Fleenor was brought in for relief in the eighth and picked up right where Howell left off, retiring all six batters he faced.
 
Griffin was the winning pitcher and improved to 6-1. The right-hander struck out 11, marking the sixth time in his previous eight starts that he struck out seven or more opposing hitters. Griffin gave up eight hits, three walks and an earned run in his second complete game of the season.
 
Soto finished with two of the eight hits and was the only Buffalo to reach base more than twice. He also drew a walk in the seventh.  
 
Kirk went 1-for-4 with a ninth-inning base hit up the middle in his last plate appearance. The senior's career ended with 272 career hits, two off the Milligan record of 274 set by Scott Shealy in 2003.