Rio baseball fails to solve Riddle
Rio Grande Sports Information
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Second-seeded Embry-Riddle parlayed a pair of big innings and a strong pitching performance by senior starter Zac Grotz into a 9-3 win over No. 4 seed University of Rio Grande, Wednesday afternoon, in the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round's Daytona Beach Bracket at Sliwa Stadium.
The regional host Eagles, ranked 16th nationally, improved to 38-17 with the victory and earned a berth in the tourney's championship first final.
Rio Grande, which had a 14-game winning streak snapped, slipped to 34-21 with the loss and will face third-seeded loss Bryan (Tenn.) in Thursday's loser's bracket final at 2 p.m.
The Rio-Bryan winner will face Embry-Riddle in the title game of the double elimination bracket at 6 p.m. A second final, if needed, would take place on Friday, at 2 p.m.
The regional champion moves on to the NAIA World Series beginning May 22 in Lewiston, Idaho.
Embry-Riddle scored three times in the third inning to take a 4-0 lead and blew things open by scoring four more times in the sixth inning.
Grotz, the Eagles' closer for most of the season before being converted into a starter, checked Rio Grande on four hits over seven shutout innings. He did not issue a walk and fanned six en route to his eighth win in nine decisions.
Rio Grande senior starter Landon Hutchison (Baltimore, OH) took the loss, allowing 11 hits and six runs over 5-1/3 innings.
Embry-Riddle took a 1-0 lead in the second on a two-out walk to Matt Jacobs and consecutive singles by Kyle Buchanan and Hunter Bruehl.
The Eagles stretched their lead to 4-0 in the third thanks to back-to-back one-out singles by Jake Cavender and Liam Goodall, a run-scoring double by Enderson Velasquez, an RBI groundout by Joshua Garcia and a run-scoring hit by Jacobs.
Rio Grande, which had just three baserunners against Grotz through the first five innings, saw any real hopes of mounting a comeback fade into oblivion when Embry-Riddle had seven straight hits to begin the sixth, producing four runs in the process.
Buchanan, Bruehl and Ryan Maxon all had singles to start the frame and end the day for Hutchison, although Buchanan was thrown out trying to steal second prior to the hits by Bruehl and Maxon.
Tobias Moreno greeted Rio junior reliever Anthony Yanez (Parris, CA) with a single to load the bases, before Cavender launched a three-run double to left to make it 7-0.
Goodall and Velasquez followed with consecutive singles off of Rio freshman reliever Brady Knittel (West Portsmouth, OH) to score the final run of the inning.
The Eagles added their final run in the eighth inning when Goodall led off with a single, moved to third on a one-out single by Garcia and scored on a two-out single by Buchanan to push the lead to 9-0.
The RedStorm avoided a shutout with three runs in the eighth against relievers Corey Tufts and Clayton Wagner. Two of the runs scored when a bases-loaded grounder to shortstop by junior Kirk Yates (Chillicothe, OH) was kicked for an error and the other scored on a bases-loaded walk to freshman Dominic Tiberi (Dublin, OH).
Rio also put its first two batters on in the ninth inning, but Wagner rebounded to retire each of the next three batters and seal the win.
Moreno, Goodall, Buchanan and Bruehl all had three hits in Embry-Riddle's 19-hit attack, while Cavender and Velasquez had two hits each.
Freshman Cody Blackburn (Amanda, OH) went 3-for-4 in a losing cause for Rio Grande.
A live webcast of Thursday's action involving the RedStorm is scheduled for www.team1sports.com/redstorm beginning at 1:50 p.m.