WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Georgetown University baseball team took an early lead, but faltered late to lose 6-5 in heartbreaking fashion to Sacred Heart University on Saturday afternoon. The game was played at Wake Forest's David F. Couch Ballpark. With the loss, the Hoyas fall to 0-2 on the season while the Pioneers move to 1-1.
 
Kai Nelson (New York, N.Y. / Fieldston) was on base four times to lead the offense, reaching on a single, double and two walks. He also scored a run and had an RBI. Yareb Martinez (Aldie, Va. / John Champe) had a pair of RBI singles and also reached via walk. AJ Lotsis (Phoenixville, Pa. / Episcopal Academy) walked twice and scored a pair of runs. Ryan M. Davis (Danville, Calif. / San Ramon Valley) was on base twice with a double and a walk.
 
Nick Morreale (Lake Elmo, Minn. / St. Thomas Academy / IMG Academy) started on the mound and went 6.0-plus innings, allowing four runs, three earned, on four hits and one walk. He set a new career high with nine strikeouts. Jack Cushing (Flower Mound, Texas / Marcus High School) threw a scoreless inning of relief with a pair of strikeouts.
 
The Hoyas opened the scoring in the top of the second when Lotsis and Nelson drew consecutive one-out walks. Martinez, in his first career at-bat, lined a single into center field to score Lotsis and give GU a 1-0 lead.
 
Sacred Heart manufactured a run in the bottom of the third to tie the game, but Georgetown answered right back in the top of the fourth. Lotsis again started the rally with a walk and went to third on a double down the third base line by Nelson. Martinez delivered his second RBI single to score Lotsis and then Ryan Weisenberg (Parkland, Fla. / San Ramon Valley [Calif.]) followed with a perfectly executed safety squeeze to push Nelson across the plate to put the Hoyas back up, 3-1.
 
James Gabor (Wyndmoor, Pa. / William Penn Charter School) singled with one out in the fifth and Eddie McCabe (Norwalk, Conn. / Norwalk) followed with a hit by pitch. An error loaded the bases before Gabor came home on a wild pitch. Nelson then drove in McCabe with a single to left field to extend GU's lead to 5-1.
 
Sacred Heart rallied in the bottom of the seventh, scoring four runs on three hits, two walks and two GU errors to tie the game at 5-5.
 
Georgetown put a runner in scoring position in both the eighth and ninth innings, but was unable to score the go-ahead runner.
 
The Pioneers loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth off of Owen Lamon (Herndon, Va. / Oakton). Freddy Achecar III (Atlanta, Ga. / Lovett School) made a diving stop on a hard ground ball, but his throw home was too late as Sacred Heart won in walk-off fashion.
 
The Hoyas will conclude their opening weekend with a Sunday matchup against Wake Forest. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. and live stats will be available at GUHoyas.com. Junior Brent Killam (Nokomis, Fla. / Venice) will take the mound for the Blue & Gray.