|
|
Keegan Woolford hit his ninth home run of the
season in the first inning of a 6-4 ODAC Tournament win over Hampden-Sydney Sunday. Shenandoah athletics photo
|
No. 20 Shenandoah University punched its ticket to Lynchburg and the ODAC Baseball Championships with a 6-4 win over Hampden-Sydney Sunday in game two of the best-of-three series. Shenandoah (30-10) advances into Friday's 4 p.m. game versus top-seeded Randolph-Macon with the win over Hampden-Sydney (17-21). The four-team, double elimination tournament, which includes Virginia Wesleyan and Roanoke as well as the Hornets and Yellow Jackets, will be played at City Stadium in Lynchburg. Playing as the visitor Sunday afternoon, SU jumped on the Tigers for two runs in the top of the first to lead from start to finish.
Junior right-hander Brandon Lopez scattered eight hits in a complete game effort as the Bowdoin College Polar Bears handed the 16th-ranked University of Southern Maine Huskies their third loss in the last four games by an 8-3 score Sunday afternoon at Pickard Field. The game was the regular season finale for both clubs. Southern Maine closes the year at 27-11 overall and will be the number three seed for the Little East Conference tournament that starts Wednesday. Bowdoin, with its first win over Southern Maine since 2012, finishes the year 16-17.
Pitt-Bradford split the two Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference first round games with Penn State-Altoona at the Kessel Athletic Complex Sunday, forcing a decisive game three to be played Monday morning. Each team picked up a win in the best-of-three formatted First Round, therefore the winner of Monday's 11 a.m. third game will advance to the Championship Round hosted by No. 1 La Roche. La Roche, Pitt-Greensburg, and Penn State Behrend already have their tickets to the four team affair.
After beating Salem State in the elimination game on Sunday, Framingham State defeated Westfield State 9-6 in the MASCAC Baseball Tournament Championship to force a game two on Monday. Junior Kyle Hodgson earned the victory for the Rams in the first championship game, going eight innings and allowing five earned runs on 11 hits with eight strikeouts.
No. 4 seed Endicott and No. 6 seed Gordon both won their elimination games on Sunday, May 6 to remain in the tournament and advance to the CCC Pod Finals, which will take place Monday, May 7. The Gulls came away with a 13-7 win over No. 5 seed Wentworth, while the Fighting Scots defeated No. 2 seed Roger Williams, 7-3. Endicott advances to play No. 1 seed Salve Regina at 3:30 p.m. needing two wins to knock out the undefeated Seahawks. If the Gulls win the game, a deciding game will be played on Tuesday to determine which member of the pod advances to the CCC Baseball Championship Series next weekend. Gordon will also play tomorrow against third-seeded Western New England at noon. The Golden Bears will serve as host as the undefeated team in its pod. In this pod, the "if necessary game" will be played later Monday afternoon if the Fighting Scots win the first game.
With the Spartans in urgent need of a big Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference victory at Earlham College's Randal R. Sadler Field to ensure a spot in the 2018 postseason tournament, Stephen Pinarski's 10-strikeout performance filled the bill. The outing equaled what fellow senior hurler Taylor Kopplin did when he k'ed the same number of Heidelberg University Student Princes in late March. Going up against of the league's best in the form of Walter Talcott, the Black and Gold (19-20, 9-8 HCAC) needed every bit of what Pinarski threw at the home-standing Quakers. MU's offense managed to compile three runs with single tallies in the fourth, seventh and eighth in support, as senior outfielder Alec Trzeciak doubled and drove in a run, and junior outfielder Tyler LaFollette and sophomore designated hitter Joe Gallatin added safeties and an RBI each in route to a 3-0 decision.
The MAC Freedom Championship game was halted in the bottom of the eighth inning and will be picked on Monday after rain came and did not stop on Sunday afternoon. The game will be picked up where it left off at the start of the bottom of the eighth inning with DeSales trailing Misericordia 4-1. DeSales will need to rally in the final inning and a half or the championship will move to the if necessary game which will begin immediately after the halted game is finished to crown the 2018 champion.
RIT (18-15-1, 11-10-1 Liberty League) clinched a Liberty League postseason berth, splitting a doubleheader against Rochester (16-15, 16-5 Liberty League) on the final day of the regular season for both schools from Tiger Stadium on Sunday. RIT won game one, 3-0, while the Tigers took game two, 5-1. While the Tigers were fighting for their playoff lives, The Yellowjackets were clinching the top spot in the Liberty League and the right to host the four team conference tournament.
For the sixth time in program history, Texas-Dallas will be playing for an ASC championship after winning the ASC's Red Bracket finals Sunday, 10-2, over LeTourneau at Sul Ross State's Kokernot Field. Playing a YellowJacket team that was trying to win its third straight game after dropping the tournament opener to the Comets Friday, UTD broke loose against a tired LETU bullpen, answering each of two YellowJacket rallies with five-run outbursts to stake its claim to the Red Bracket title. The Comets will meet either Texas-Tyler or Concordia Texas in a best-of-three ASC Championship Series that will run Thursday-Saturday, May 10-12.
The Concordia-Chicago Cougars hosted the North Central Cardinals this afternoon in a battle of top-ranked region teams. The single game today figured to be a good tune-up for the two teams' respective conference tournaments after both teams clinched their regular-season titles earlier in the weekend. However, it was a one-sided game in River Forest as the Cougars used a seven-run second inning to demolish the Cardinals by a score of 13-1 in a game abbreviated to seven innings.