SALINA, Kan. – Top-seeded Johnson (Tenn.) used a 5-run fourth inning and a 7-run seventh inning to pull away from the fourth-seeded Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) Saints for a 20-10 victory in the first round of the Salina Bracket of the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round at Dean Evans Stadium.
 
The victory boosts the Royals record to 38-12 heading into Tuesday's match-up with the host Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes at 2:30 p.m. at Dean Evans Stadium. Our Lady of the Lake falls to 34-19 and will face Concordia (Neb.) in an elimination game at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.
 
Travis Hobbensiefken put the Royals up 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning with a RBI single that scored JJ Menesini who walked earlier in the inning.
 
OLLU tied it on Diego Zuniga's homer in the second, but Johnson grabbed the lead back in the bottom of the inning as Luke Wilson singled to bring home Christian Altamirano who walked and moved up on a passed ball in the inning.
 
Johnson's five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning game on a 2-run double by Luke Wilson, a Hobbensiefken RBI single, an error on a double steal and a RBI single by Izaak Fernandez to put the Royals up 7-1.
 
OLLU came back with four runs in the top of the fifth inning as Drew Saucedo singled to bring in Benjamyn Hovda, a wild pitch allowed Christian Martinez to score, Joshua Milton had a RBI single and Zuniga knocked home a run with a hit.
 
The Saints got within a run on a single by Brett Atkinson in the sixth, but got no closer. Johnson put two on the board in the sixth, the first run coming on a wild pitch and the second on Altamirano's single.
 
OLLU added two more in the seventh on a single by Hivda to score Gonzalez and Juan Garcia's RBI double, but Johnson would pull away in the bottom of the inning with seven runs.
 
Mitchell Birdsall hit a 3-run homer to start the scoring, and was followed by Joseph Brown's RBI double, a RBI single by Altamirano and JJ Menesini's 2-run ground-rule double.
 
Jack Kalisky homered for OLLU in the eighth, but the Royals would end it on the run-rule in the bottom of the frame. Braden Frank singled to bring in Andrew Wilford, Altamirano singled home a run and Grayson Shehan would close things out with a 2-run single to left center to push the Royals out to a 20-10 lead.
 
Hovda had four hits for Our Lady of the Lake to lead the Saints. Donovan Gamez took the loss allowing two runs, one earned, on two hits, with four walks in an inning-plus of work as OLLU used seven pitchers in the game.
 
Altamirano had four hits for the Royals and Wilson added three as Johnson had 20 hits in the game. Three players drove in three runs each. Kaleb Townsend got the win going five innings, allowing five runs on nine hits with four strikeouts.