GREENVILLE, Tenn. — The Eastfield Harvester Bees lost to Rowan College of South Jersey Gloucester 5-1 Tuesday in the semifinals of the 2023 NJCAA Division III World Series at Pioneer Park. The loss drops Eastfield into the losers bracket of the double-elimination tournament.

Eastfield scored a run in the top of the first inning when Cade Conway capitalized on a throwing error, but Gloucester scored two runs in the bottom of the second, two more runs in the fourth and one in the eighth inning.

“It was two really good teams competing,” Conway said. “The ball kind of went their way today. I think we just didn’t capitalize on situations that we needed to.”

Kyson Snelson went 2-for-3 for Eastfield while Cade Conway, Gus Witt, Angel Rodriguez, Jayden Morgan, Rivers Curs and Hunter O’Shea added one hit each. Marcus Peters (3-2)was the losing pitcher, giving up tow runs on two hits while striking out two batters in the first two innings. Stephen Pena, Jalen Johnson and Austin Noel also pitched for the Harvester Bees.

Despite the loss, Peters said he is confident that Eastfield still has a chance to win the championship.

“It’s one loss,” he said. “We’ve lost baseball games before. This isn’t our first time. We’re really good at three-game series, and against that team again, I think our chances are a lot better.”

Coach Michael Martin said that his team could have scored more runs.

“We just needed a big hit and some timely hitting,” he said. “It didn’t come through. They (Gloucester) pitched us really well. All day long, they kept us off balance and competed in the zone. And they didn’t give us any extra opportunities.”

Martin said his team had a good performance even though they lost. 

“I thought we played really well,” he said. “Our pitchers all did a really good job and kept us in the ball game. I didn’t think we played bad at all.”

The Harvester Bees will play the winner of the game between Northern Essex and Niagara County at 6 p.m. Wednesday.