TYLER, Texas – The No. 3-ranked UT Tyler Patriots earned their third straight American Southwest Conference Baseball Championship with a 6-1 win over East Texas Baptist in 10 innings on Saturday at Irwin Field to finish off a Gold Bracket series in two games that both went extra innings.
UT Tyler scored five runs in the 10th inning with Alex Bishop hitting a one-out RBI single to give the Patriots a 2-1 lead before Kyle Broussard stepped up with the bases loaded and put an exclamation point on the championship with a grand slam. Reese Read came into the game in the bottom of the 10th and struck out the first two batters he faced before getting a flyout to Trenton Buchhorn in left field for the third out to set off a dogpile at the mound to celebrate the title that clinches the Patriots berth to next week’s NCAA Division III West Regional which will be hosted at Irwin Field. The NCAA announcement will be released at 11 p.m. on Sunday night with the teams traveling to Tyler for the six-team regional.
The Patriots have now won six ASC titles with tournament championships in 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Broussard was named the Gold Bracket MVP after going 4-for-5 in the game, including the first grand slam of his career and the third home run of his senior season. A senior from Tatum, Broussard played his freshman season at ETBU before transferring to UT Tyler and helping lead the Patriots to the title against his former team. Bishop would go 3-for-4 in the game with the game-winning RBI that scored Henry Sanchez who pinch ran for Daniel Williams who had a one-out double to get the 10th inning going. Gunnar Quick, Buchhorn and Graham Welch had two hits each for the Patriots who had 16 hits in the game and left nine runners on base before breaking through in extra innings.
Cody Brown (10-2) earned the win in relief and secured the victories in both games for the Patriots. A senior in his first season with the Patriots, Brown threw three innings of scoreless relief for starter Cason Adams who allowed just one run in six innings. Adams struck out four and scattered four hits, while Brown held the Tigers to two hits.