NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - The No. 19/20 Shenandoah University baseball team posted its second straight victory of the Newport News Regional with a 6-1 win over No. 4/6 Salisbury University Thursday afternoon.
Senior Cory Nelson (6-4) threw 8 2/3 innings of seven-hit ball to propel the Hornets (31-11) past Salisbury (32-8).
With the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth, SU skipper Kevin Anderson turned to closer Kyle Scallion, who induced a lazy fly ball to right for the final out of the contest.
The save, Scallion's sixth of the season, was his second in less than 24 hours.
The win makes Shenandoah the lone remaining undefeated team in the regional. The Hornets will now await the winner of the Messiah/Salisbury game tomorrow; those two teams play at 9:30 a.m. with the winner facing the Hornets at 4:30.
A Shenandoah win tomorrow gives the Hornets two chances to win the South Region title and make their third trip to Appleton in the past four years.
After the two teams each scored one run in the fourth, SU scored one run in the sixth before breaking things open with a four-run seventh.
Senior Jake Pendergraft, who led the 11-hit attack with a 4 for 5 afternoon, had the big blow in the seventh with a two-run single up the middle.
Pendergraft's hit drove in the final two runs of the game.
In the sixth, the Hornets had taken the lead for good on a Nick Beall RBI single to left. The RBI was the second of the game for Beall, who had plated the victors first run with a fourth inning groundout.
Beall now has four RBI in the regional.
The four-run seventh gave Nelson all of the cushion he needed - he retired the Gulls in order in the first, second (with the help of a double play) and seventh while throwing just 110 pitches in earning his sixth victory of the year.
Beall and Joey Donofrio both had two hits to back up Pendergraft.
View video of Pendergraft's two-run single.