Top seeds advance in baseball tourney
Top seeds advance in baseball tourney
By RANDY PAYTON
Rio Grande Sports Information
KINGSPORT, Tenn. - Top seeds Point Park University and the University of Rio Grande moved into the winner's bracket final, while No. 3 Indiana University-Southeast and sixth-seeded Asbury University remained alive in the loser's bracket after Thursday's action in the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament at Hunter Wright Stadium.
No. 1 seed Point Park cruised past fourth-seeded Brescia University, 15-4, while No. 2 seed Rio Grande outlasted IU-Southeast, 2-1 in 10 innings, to set up Friday's winner bracket final in the double-elimination tournament.
First pitch is slated for noon, with the winner earning a spot in Saturday's championship game.
IU-Southeast kept its title hopes afloat late Thursday night by rallying in its final two at bats for an 8-7 win over No. 5 seed Alice Lloyd, while Asbury ousted Brescia with a 10-0 triumph in another ellimination game.
IU-Southeast and Asbury will square off on Friday at 3 p.m. in another elimination game, with the winner advancing to face the Point Park-Rio Grande loser in loser's bracket final immediately afterward at approximately 6 p.m.
Here's a brief recap of Thursday's action:
Point Park 15, Brescia 4--The Pioneers scored five times in the third inning to open up a big lead, before adding a three-run fifth, a four-run sixth and two runs in the eighth inning to win going away.
Oscar Romero went 3-for-5 with three runs scored and three runs batted in, while Jordan Crowell homered and drove in four runs. Demetrius Moorer had two hits and scored three times in the winning effort and Chaz Russo drove in two runs.
Nate Sphon allowed five hits and two runs over six innings to earn his seventh win in 10 decisions.
Bryce Wilz started and took the loss for Brescia, allowing four hits and six runs over two innings.
Christian McHatton had two hits in the loss for the Bearcats, while Daniel Lokesak, Blake Smith, Anthony Kennedy and Josh Wetzel drove in one run each.
Rio Grande 2, IU-Southeast 1 (10 innings)--Chris Ford's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning lifted the RedStorm to a dramatic win over the Grenadiers.
Rio took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Findley and the lead held up until IU-Southeast's Trent Simpson hit a game-tying home run with one out in the top of the ninth inning.
Rio Grande appeared to have rallied for the win in the home half of the ninth, but right fielder Alex Dapkus threw out Kevin Arroyo at first base on what looked to be a game-winning two-out single and the game went to extra innings.
The RedStorm won it in the 10th when Kirk Yates led off with a single and moved to second when pinch-hitter Daryin Lewis' sacrifice bunt attempt turned into a bunt single. A wild pickoff attempt allowed Yates to advance to third and Ford followed with his game-winner sacrifice fly to left-center.
Grant Tamane had three hits to lead Rio Grande, becoming the school's all-time hits leader in the process, while Yates and Ford had two hits each.
Kyle Miller went the distance on the mound for the RedStorm, allowing six hits and the one run with two walks and four strikeouts.
IU-Southeast relief ace Evan Bickett took the loss, allowing four hits and an unearned run over 3-1/3 innings.
Simpson finished 2-for-4 in the loss.
Asbury 10, Brescia 0--The Eagles scored five times in the first and added three more markers in the fifth, cruising to an easy win.
Christian Beckley tossed a two-hit shutout for Asbury, walking four and striking out five.
Dallas Murphy went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles, while scoring four times and driving in two runs to lead the Eagles. Jared Hahn also had three hits and drove in three runs, while Andrew Moran went 3-for-5 and McKenzie Sullivan finished 2-for-5 with two RBI.
Ian Serrar also had a two-run single for Asbury.
Kegan Graves started and took the loss for Brescia, while Aaron King had both of the Bearcats' hits.
IU-Southeast 8, Alice Lloyd 7--Trent Simpson's two-out, two-run home run capped a four-run eighth inning rally and kept the Grenadiers alive in the tournament.
Alice Lloyd scored once in the fifth inning and three times in the sixth to open up a 7-2 lead, but Simpson had a two-run single in the home half of the seventh to pull IU-Southeast within 7-4 and set up the dramatic eighth inning rally.
ALC reliever Chance Westerfield retired the first two batters in the inning, but Marcus Howard and Alex Dapkus had back-to-back singles and both scored when Josh Beams' routine groundball to third was errored. Simpson followed by hammering an 0-2 pitch over the fence in left for the tying and go-ahead runs.
Shane Weedman improved to 4-1, allowing four hits and a run while walking one and striking out seven in 3-2/3 innings of relief.
Dapkus finished 3-for-3, with Beams and Brad Walker also driving in one run each.
Kevin Smith and Ryne Loggins both had three hits and drove in two runs for the Eagles, while Zach Hancock, Patrick Barnett and Jake Bales added two hits apiece in a losing cause.
Westerfield took the loss, allowing seven hits and five runs - only one of which was earned - over two innings.
Live video of every tournament game is available at www.team1sports.com/redstorm.
Live statistics for tournament contests can be found at www.dakstats.com/WebSync/Pages/Webcasts.aspx?association=10.