LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.  – Louisiana Christian got a fast start Monday morning at the NAIA Lawrenceville Bracket, then found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Wildcats scored four runs in their second at-bat and held on to dispatch Bushnell (Ore.) 6-4 in a game that opened the regional at 9 a.m. local time. That advanced LCU into a late afternoon meeting with the regional host, Georgia Gwinnett, the No. 2-ranked team in the NAIA Baseball Top 25, and the Grizzlies lived up to billing, pounding the visitors 26-2.

LCU (33-20) will get some welcomed recovery time before playing this evening at 6 CDT. They’ll meet the survivor of Bushnell and Ottawa University (Arizona) in an elimination-bracket contest. Faulkner (Ala.) beat OUAZ 3-0 Monday in the other opening day contest.

The Wildcats got a pair of two-run singles to fuel their early lead against Bushnell. Adrian Aguilar opened the scoring and Braxton Cooksey doubled the margin. The Beacons chipped away with single runs in the second, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

Luke Morgan singled in a fifth-inning run before Nick Lorio’s sacrifice bunt gave LCU a 6-2 lead.

Cy Fontenot limited Bushnell to two runs in the first five innings. Jayden Drake earned his first career save by limiting Bushnell to just one hit in the last two innings.

Climbing on the team bus to head to the ballpark at 6:30 a.m., and then taking the field 11 hours later to play the No. 2 team in the country turned out to be too much for LCU.

Georgia Gwinnett clubbed four home runs among 10 extra base hits, adding 12 singles while scoring 4 in the first, 5 more in the second and leading 12-0 after three innings. The Grizzlies posted an 8-run fifth inning.

Pinch-hitter Brady Sers delivered a two-run double for the Wildcats in the sixth inning. There is no run-rule in NAIA Tournament play, so the game went nine innings. LCU used seven pitchers,  each working an inning and nobody throwing more than 1.1 innings