LAURINBURG, N.C. (April 24, 2016) â€" The Milligan College baseball team held an early 2-0 lead thanks to sophomore Bryan Soto's third home run of the season, but it would not be enough as a five-run spurt in two innings led to a 10-4 loss to St. Andrews University in their Appalachian Athletic Conference series finale Sunday at Clark Field.

Milligan fell to 19-26 overall and 9-15 in the AAC, and came up short with a chance to get back into the top six in the conference standings. St. Andrew's saw its record rise to 27-21 and 11-13 as it got back to .500 at home on the year.

Milligan's starter on the mound, Hunter Townsend, got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the bottom of the first, and then led off the top of the second with a base hit to get the Buffs started offensively. Soto's homer followed two batters later, scoring Tanner Peer, to get Milligan on the board. Soto's blast put him only one behind Townsend, who is a freshman, so far on the season.

The Knights scored twice in the third inning with two doubles off Townsend and then put up three runs in the fourth with five singles off Luke Spaulding to go ahead for good. Milligan stranded runners on third in both the third and fifth innings, but finally broke through again in the seventh as Hunter Suggs' second hit of the game led to an RBI by Shane Salley.

The Buffs then looked to make things interesting in the eighth inning with a leadoff double by Peer and a two-out, RBI hit to center by Tucker McPherson to bring in Peer for the second time on the day and make it a one-run ball game. Like Suggs, Peer went 2-for-4 on the game, and Blake Dutton drew two walks.

Townsend (1-1) struck out three in 2.2 innings while allowing three hits and one walk. Dustin Cole tossed 2.2 innings of scoreless baseball with two hits and two walks.

Next up, Milligan has one more nonconference doubleheader at Point Park University on Wednesday, April 27, and will then wrap up the conference season at Anglin Field against No. 6 Tennessee Wesleyan College on Saturday-Sunday, April 30-May 1.