#4 Midway advances to championship with win over #2 IU Southeast, 4-3
#4 Midway advances to championship with win over #2 IU Southeast, 4-3
BOX SCORE
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- No. 4 seed Midway (Ky.) University remained unbeaten at the River States Conference Baseball Tournament with a 4-3 win over No. 2 IU Southeast on Monday night from VA Memorial Stadium. Eagles are on to the championship round Tuesday at 11 a.m. and is now 3-0 in the tournament. Midway will meet No. 5 WVU Tech in the finals as those are the final two teams remaining.
Midway (27-27) , which scored 29 runs in its first two games of the tournament, had its more characteristic path to victory on Monday night. What was the top pitching staff in the conference all year did its usual thing versus IU Southeast (45-13), which was getting 7.0 strong innings from Hector Quinones, who was backed up by an inning of scoreless relief from both Derek Jones and Jake McCoy.
Quinones gave up eight hits over his outing but limited IU Southeast to two runs. He struck out five, walked one, and the only big blemish was a solo homer by Tanner Leenknecht for a 1-0 deficit in the second.
Midway drew even at 1-1 in the fourth when Danny Maguire stroked an RBI double. He was 3 for 3 with two doubles and two RBIs. Matthew Olson was 2 for 4, including a run-scoring single in the fifth that put Midway ahead, 2-1.
IU Southeast tied it up at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth as Richard Rodriguez delivered an RBI base hit. But Midway responded in the top of the sixth to score what would be the eventual winning couple of runs. There were two hits, a walk, a hit batter and a stolen base in the inning. Maguire's RBI double and Reid Battles' sacrfice fly brought in the runs for the 4-2 lead.
That was all that the Midway pitching needed with Quinones finishing off his outing and handing a 4-2 lead over to Jones and McCoy. The relievers did not allow a run and gave up just one infield hit.
The IU Southeast bottom of the ninth had Nicholas Lugo reach on a walk and then steal second and third. An infield hit by Clay Benefield cut the score to 4-3, but a strikeout and a ground out ended it.
Chase Vanek pitched six innings for IU Southeast and took the loss. He was charged with the four runs (three earned), struck out two and walked two. Brian Cherrington tossed three scoreless innings of relief to keep the score at 4-2.
IU Southeast was playing its second game of the day after its rally to beat No. 1 Point Park, 13-8, earlier in the day. The Grenadiers scored nine runs on eight hits in the bottom of the eighth to erase an 8-4 deficit. IU Southeast is ranked No. 21 in the NAIA Top 25 and will look to get an at-large bid to the national tournament.
Midway is now one win away from the RSC Baseball Tournament championship. The champion advances to the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round as the conference's automatic bid. WVU Tech has to beat Midway twice for the it to win the title.