No. 1 IU Southeast beats No. 2 WVU Tech, advances to KIAC Tournament Finals

5/7/2016 12:00:00 AM

KINGSPORT, Tenn. -- No. 1 seed IU Southeast advanced to the KIAC Baseball Tournament finals with Friday night's 7-3 win over No. 2 WVU Tech in the loser's bracket final at Hunter Wright Stadium.

IU Southeast (41-12) needed to survive the elimination game after losing earlier in the day Friday, 10-9, to No. 4 Rio Grande. By pulling out the win in their second game of the day, the Grenadiers advance to the championship round, where they will have a rematch versus Rio Grande starting Saturday at 11 a.m.

IU Southeast, which is ranked No. 19 in this week's NAIA Baseball Top 25 Poll, needs two wins for the KIAC Tournament title while Rio Grande needs just one victory since it is 3-0 so far in the six-team, double-elimination tournament.

WVU Tech (40-16) had beaten Brescia, 17-3, just before but was eliminated by IU Southeast after playing its second game in a row. The Golden Bears, who have been "receiving votes" in the NAIA Top 25, will have to rely on a possible at-large bid to nationals to continue the season.

IU Southeast shook off an early, 2-0 deficit to WVU Tech with an offense that scored in six different innings to build the lead as big as 7-2.

While the Grenadiers were steadily adding to the scoreboard, winning pitcher Greg Laughlin was throwing 5.1 solid innings and giving up just one earned run and two runs total. The junior right-hander gave up six hits, struck out four and walked two.

IU Southeast tallied 16 hits and homered twice. Cody Maloon homered in the second to cut the deficit to 2-1, and Tyler Adams went deep to give the Grenadiers the lead for good, 3-2, in the fifth.

The Grenadiers tacked on with one in the sixth, two in the seventh and one more in the eighth.

Picking up two hits each were Maloon, Kyle Goodman, Matt Volz, Kyle Asher and Trent Simpson. Maloon scored three runs, and Simpson drove in two.

WVU Tech had Dylan Harvey lead the offense going 3 for 4 with a solo homer in the first that helped build the early lead of 2-0. Brady Groesbeck was 3 for 5 as he and Harvey combined for six of the team's nine hits.

WVU Tech had plenty of base runners with five walks and six errors by IU Southeast on top of their nine hits. The Golden Bears left 15 men on base. IU Southeast also left 15 on base and survived six errors for the second game in a row.

Chris Davidson started and pitched 6.0 innings for WVU Tech. He was touched for 12 hits, five runs and four earned. The Golden Bears used a total of four pitchers with Brandon Tucker, Austin Southcott and Tanner LeVine all brought in to try and stave off elimination.

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