COLLEGE BASEBALL CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT RESULTS FROM APRIL 30th

* SOUTHERN STATES ATHLETIC CONFERENCE *

UPSET OF THE DAY – The SSAC’s 8th seeded AUBURN UNIVERSITY AT MONTGOMERY WARHAWKS (formerly the Senators) delivered the shock of the day yesterday. The Warhawks rose up and dragged down the conference’s top seeded FAULKNER UNIVERSITY EAGLES in an undeniable Instant Classic. The Eagles were leading 2-0 going into the top of the 8th Inning when the Warhawk bats came to life, seizing a 4-2 lead. Faulkner, the defending national champions of NAIA college baseball, pulled to 4-3 in their half of the Inning and AUM responded by adding another run in the top of the 9th. The Warhawks limited the Eagles to just 1 run themselves in the bottom of the Inning and nabbed a 5-4 victory! AUM’s P.J. Leto got the win!  

THEY HAD ‘EM ALL THE WAY! – With apologies to the late baseball broadcaster Bob Prince. The 2nd seeded BREWTON- PARKER COLLEGE BARONS well and truly had their First Round opponents – the 7th seeded UNIVERSITY OF MOBILE RAMS – all the way. A 2-0 lead after the 1st Inning became 3-0 after the 2nd, 4-0 after the 5th and 6-0 after the 6th! The Rams finally got on the board in the top of the 8th Inning with a pair of runs but the Barons added another run of their own to make it 7-2, which would hold up as the final score! For the Barons Mike Venturelli walked away with the win.  

DOUBLING UP ON THE COMPETITION – This game pitted the 3 seeds – the SOUTHERN POLYTECHNIC STATE RUNNING HORNETS against the 6th seeded MARTIN METHODIST UNIVERSITY REDHAWKS. The Running Hornets (No,not the Flying Squirrels, the Running Hornets) kept the Redhawks to just 1 run in the first half of the game while putting up runs themselves in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Innings. Southern Polytechnic held a 5-1 lead until Martin Methodist put up 2 runs in the top of the 8th Inning. The Running Hornets added one last run in the bottom of the 8th then held on for the 6-3 victory. Matt Miller pitched for the “W” for Southern Polytechnic.

NINE INNINGS WEREN’T ENOUGH – There was only one game that went into Extra Innings yesterday and it was the clash between the 4th seeded BELHAVEN COLLEGE BLAZERS and the 5th seeded WILLIAM CAREY UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS. The Blazers scored a run in the bottom of the 1st Inning and that 1-0 lead held up until the top of the 5th when the Crusaders tied the game up. In the top of the 6th Inning William Carey University then took a 2-1 lead, which was where things stood until the bottom of the 9th when Belhaven College made it a 2-2 tie and sent the game into Inning number 10. In the extra frame the Blazers outscored the Crusaders 2-1 for a final score of 4-3.BC’s Tyler Akins pitched for the win.  

* KANSAS COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC CONFERENCE *

THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN – The battle between the 4 seeds – the BETHANY COLLEGE SWEDES – and the 5 seeds – the UNIVERSITY OF SAINT MARY SPIRES – was the only game in the KCAC tourney yesterday. This was a play-in game so the usual Double- Elimination format for baseball didn’t apply to this contest. It was pretty much all- Swedes all the time in this matchup. Bethany College took a 1-0 lead in the 1st Inning and added another run in the 4th, 2 more in the 5th and one last run in the 7th. The only run for the Spires came in the top of the 9th Inning but it was nowhere near enough as the Swedes advanced by a score of 5-1. Robert Johnson got the win for Bethany College.