Rio Grande nips top-seeded Warhawks
Rio Grande Sports Information
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Kirk Yates' one-out, bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth inning capped a two-run rally and lifted the University of Rio Grande to a 3-2 victory over 8th-ranked Auburn University-Montgomery in the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round's Embry-Riddle Bracket, Tuesday night, at Sliwa Stadium.
The RedStorm, who are seeded fifth in the five-team double-elimination regional, won for the 14th straight time and improved to 34-20.
Head coach Brad Warnimont's squad will face 16th-ranked and second-seeded Embry-Riddle in Wednesday's winner's bracket final at 2 p.m.
The Eagles (36-17) defeated No. 3 seed Bryan (Tenn.), 3-0, in Tuesday's action.
Auburn-Montgomery, the top seed in the regional, slipped to 40-17 with the loss and will face the Bryan-Southeastern (Fla.) winner in an elimination contest on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The Warhawks took a 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth inning against Rio Grande sophomore reliever Daryin Lewis (Circleville, OH) when Tremayne Hardin led off with a single, moved to third on a groundout and a wild pitch and scored on a single by Matt Miller.
Rio Grande's game-winning rally began when senior Kyle Findley (Cincinnati, OH) led off with a single against AUM reliever Brady Eldridge and was replaced by junior pinch-runner Tyler Noel (Portsmouth, OH).
Sophomore Carlos Flores (Guayanilla, Puerto Rico) bunted Noel into scoring position and sophomore Luis Jimenez (Salinas, Puerto Rico) followed with a single up the middle to plate Noel with the tying run and advanced into scoring position on the throw to the plate.
Eldridge was lifted in favor of Cole Goodwin, who intentionally walked senior Grant Tamane (Pickering, Ontario, Canada) and surrendered an infield single to senior Kevin Arroyo (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico) to load the bases, setting the stage for Yates' game-winning hit up the middle on a 1-1 pitch.
Yates, a junior from Chillicothe, Ohio, finished with two hits in the victory. Jimenez also added two hits to the winning effort.
Lewis earned his fifth win in sixth decisions, allowing four hits and a run over three innings in relief of junior starter Kyle Miller.
Miller allowed 10 hits and a run over six innings, while walking one, striking out three and throwing a career-high 141 pitches in the process.
Auburn-Montgomery had 14 hits and stranded 13 runners in the loss. Miller and Dalton Kelley both went 3-for-5 with an RBI, while Mac Seibert also had three hits in the loss.
Eldridge suffered the loss, his first in six decisions, allowing three hits and two runs over 2-2/3 innings.
Rio grabbed a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on a run-scoring groundout by Findley, while the Warhawks tied the game in the top of the fifth on a one-out RBI single by Kelley.
Live video and play-by-play of Rio's game with Embry-Riddle will be available at www.team1sports.com/redstorm beginning at 1:50 p.m.