Mary Baldwin's baseball team has learned recently how to battle back against opponents who take early leads, but the Fighting Squirrels were unable to overcome a pair 5-run early innings and an 8-run inning late in the game and fell to first-place Methodist Sunday, 23-8.

The Fighting Squirrels surrendered nine unearned runs in the game on 18 hits, seven errors, three hit batsmen and six walks.  After falling behind early, MBU gradually battled back to cut the Methodist lead to 14-8 after five innings.  The Monarchs then put up an 8-run inning in the sixth to put the game away.

Isiah Brooks, who ripped a solo homer in the third and drew two of MBU's seven walks, along with Camden Bauswell each had two of MBU's 10 base hits.  Kelly Hackley Jr. also pushed home two runs on a bad-hop grounder to first.  

The Fighting Squirrels have four road games this week, starting with Tuesday's non-conference game at Ferrum (5 p.m.), followed by a three-game USA South weekend series at Southern Virginia.  MBU and the Knights play one game Friday at 3 p.m., followed by a doubleheader Saturday starting at noon.