Royals Fall to Montreat in AAC Tournament Opener

KINGSPORT, TN— The No. 2-seeded Johnson Royals opened the AAC Conference Tournament with an 11–3 loss to No. 8 seed Montreat on Tuesday night.

Montreat came out swinging early, plating two runs in the first inning on a pair of home runs before adding another in the second to take a 3–0 lead. The Cavaliers continued to apply pressure in the third, extending the advantage to 5–0 with another long ball.

Johnson answered in the bottom half of the third as JJ Menesini delivered an RBI single to score Edwin Olmeda Jr., putting the Royals on the board. The Royals added two more in the fifth inning, highlighted by an RBI single from Travis Hobbensiefken and a Montreat error that allowed another run to score, cutting the deficit to 5–3.

However, Montreat pulled away in the later innings. A four-run seventh inning broke the game open, followed by two more runs in the eighth, including a pair of home runs, to push the final margin to 11–3.

The Royals totaled 10 hits on the night, with Luke Wilson and Menesini each recording two hits to lead the offense. Despite the offensive opportunities, Johnson was unable to keep pace with Montreat's power at the plate.

On the mound, Kaleb Townsend took the loss, allowing nine runs over 6.1 innings. The bullpen saw action from Bodey Yates, Andrew Uharriet, and Kilian deMayo as Johnson worked to manage the remainder of the game.

Following the game, head coach Dave Serrano emphasized both Montreat's performance and the need for his team to respond moving forward.

"Well, that's not what we planned on happening. I don't want to take anything away from Montreat. They play good, and that's two days in a row they've played good in this tournament. That's what kind of happens in these tournaments is a team can get hot, and they're hot right now.

As far as us, we've hit a little bit of a lull where we're just not playing good baseball in all aspects. I see a little bit of us getting out of character as a team, and I just challenged them… this game is going to bring adversity every single day, and it's how you handle that.

We've got to flush today, we've got to flush what happened last weekend, and tomorrow's a new day and a new opportunity for us to show each other that we can be a good team and turn this around heading into the postseason."

Despite the loss, the Royals remain alive in the tournament and will look to bounce back quickly. Johnson returns to action April 30 at 3 p.m. against Pikeville.