Day 3 Recap: RSC Baseball Championship
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- After Saturday's action for Day 3 of the River States Conference Baseball Championship, just two teams remain. It will be unbeaten No. 3 seed IU Southeast versus No. 2 Point Park (Pa.) in the championship round scheduled for Sunday at 12:00 p.m. (start time pushed back 1 hour as of Sunday morning).
IU Southeast stayed unbeaten with its 8-3 victory over No. 5 Rio Grande (Ohio) on Saturday night. That pushed the Grenadiers to 3-0 on the weekend with their third night-game victory in a row. Rio Grande had beaten No. 1 Midway (Ky.), 7-5, in 10 innings to start the day to eliminate the Eagles and survive to play again at night.
In between, Point Park shutout IU Southeast, 9-0, to advance to the final day. When IU Southeast eliminated Rio Grande, there were only two teams left.
IU Southeast needs one win in the championship round to win the title. Point Park will have to beat the Grenadiers twice. The championship winner will earn automatic qualification to the NAIA National Championship. Midway has earned the RSC's other national bid as conference regular-season champ.
NO. 5 RIO GRANDE 7, NO. 1 MIDWAY 6 (10 INNINGS)
Rio Grande pulled another upset when it sent Midway home with an extra-innings loss. The RedStorm scored two runs in the top of the ninth to go ahead, 5-4. Midway forced extra innings with a tally in the bottom half, but the RedStorm had another two runs in the 10th to win.
It was a very even game with both teams using four pitchers and getting 14 hits offensively. In the end, it was Lane Mettler (2.0 IP) getting the win in 2.0 innings and Hayden Simon (1.0 IP) earning the save to preserve things for Rio Grande. Trey White tossed 3.1 innings with no runs on two hits before that, and Clayton Surrell started with two earned runs through 3.2.
Midway had Dylan Burton throw 7.0 innings and leave the game tied 3-3. Midway went ahead 4-3 on Eli Glasscock's RBI single in the bottom of the eighth.
In the Rio Grande ninth, an error with two outs left the door open for Daniel Rutherford's base hit to tie and Andrew Daria's base hit for the lead. Ayden Sciandra came up with a tying single in the Midway ninth, but Alex Scoular provided the winnings runs in the top of the 10th on a base hit.
Rio Grande got out to a 3-1 lead through four times at bat. Grant Hotchkiss delivered a tying double in the Midway fourth. That left the score at 3-3 until the eighth.
NO. 2 POINT PARK 9, NO. 4 IU KOKOMO 0
Sebastian Rodriguez threw 8.0 shutout innings to power the Pioneers to another elimination-game victory. The senior right-hander struck out six, walked one and scattered six hits in his outing.
Point Park scored in five different innings and got off to a great start with Michali Brito's three-run homer in the bottom of the first. The Pioneers out-hit the Cougars, 12-6, with the big hits continuing with Jared Campbell's RBI double in the fourth.
The Pioneers got five runs off IU Kokomo starter J.T. Holton, who threw 5.0 innings. The Pioneers added four more runs in the later innings with Jordon Campbell getting an RBI triple and Isaac Santana an RBI single in the seventh. The eighth had two more runs tacked on.
Riley Garczynski and Tucker Platt had two hits apiece for the Cougars.
Rodriguez completed his outing retiring 10 of the last 12 batters he faced. He picked up a strikeout to end the fifth and leave strand two runners to keep the shutout going at 4-0. After retiring the side in order in the sixth, a hit by pitch in the seventh and a walk in the eighth was all the Cougars got from there.
NO. 3 IU SOUTHEAST 8, NO. 5 RIO GRANDE 3
The Grenadiers kept the offense going all night and got 7.0 strong innings from starting pitcher Tyler Yotkewich to advance to the championship round undefeated.
The Grenadiers scored in seven of the eight innings to steadily build up to their total of eight runs. That included single runs in the first five innings and two in the sixth for a 7-1 lead.
Rio Grande had a 1-0 lead after the top of the first, but the RedStorm did not keep the pace set by IU Southeast. IU Southeast held a 12-9 lead in hits and cashed in with runners on to build the lead.
Already up 2-1, Mason White blasted a homer to right field to send the Grenadiers on their way. IU Southeast got hitting up and down the lineup with eight different players getting a hit. That included Trevor Campbell 2 for 4 with two runs, Brayden Hazelwood 2 for 4, Blake Cook 2 for 4 and Slater Schield 2 for 3.
That was more than enough for Yotkewich, who got through 7.0 innings with a 7-3 lead. He struck out three with all three of those geting him out of big spots. That limited the damage of the nine hits.
Angel de la Cruz had a two-run single for Rio Grande in the top of the seventh, which cut the score to 7-3 with two outs. But Yotkewich picked up a strikeout right after to end any more threat.
Gavin Knust pitched the last two innings for IU Southeast with no runs and no hits.
Daniel Rutherford pitched into the fifth inning as the Rio Grande starter. He gave up five runs and got out of some jams to limit things to no more than one run in any inning. Reid Shultz (1.2 IP) and Hayden Simon (1.1 IP) got the RedStorm to the later innings still within striking distance.