Posted by Jay Stancil - Wed, May 2, 2007 - [Baseball] - Viewed 747 times
Union, King, Montreat and Tennessee Wesleyan all won their first-round contests in the Appalachian Athletic Conference baseball tournament Wednesday at Hunter Wright Stadium in Kingsport, Tenn.
On Friday in the winners' bracket, King and Montreal will face each other at 9 a.m. with Union and Tennessee Wesleyan meeting up at 12:30 p.m. in Kingsport. In the losers' bracket, Milligan and Bluefield will meet up at 9 a.m. while Bryan and UVa-Wise will square off at 12:30 p.m. in Bristol, Tenn.
No. 5 Union had to hold on for the 4-3 victory as No. 4 UVa-Wise threatened with a rally in the bottom of the ninth.
Trailing 4-2 with one out and runners on first and second, Cavalier Brock Funk doubled in a run to cut the margin to one. After an intentional walk, Bulldog reliever Chaz Bargo got Matt Hall to line into a game-ending double play to seal the 4-3 win for Union.
Mark Parsons got the win for Union, while David Jones suffered the loss. Bargo recorded his eighth save of the season.
Offensively, Josh Ehringer led Union in going 2-for-3 with two runs scored and a RBI as Trey Wheeler went 3-for-3 with a RBI.
Jace Smith went the distance, allowing two runs - one earned, on 11 hits and one walk with nine strikeouts as No. 6 King upended No. 3 Milligan 8-2.
Milligan drew first blood with a run in the second, but King came back with a run in the third and fourth for a 2-1 lead. After King scored twice in the fifth, Milligan made it 4-2 in the top of the sixth. However, King scored two in the bottom of the sixth and a run in each the seventh and eighth innings to seal the win.
Joe Craven was the offensive star for King as he batted 4-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs scored. Bryan Cruze drove in two runs as well.
No. 2 Montreat had to rally in the bottom of the ninth to pull out the narrow 10-9 win over No. 7 Bluefield.
Trailing 7-6 in the top of the ninth, Bluefield pushed three runs across to seize a 9-7 advantage. Lowell Coats delievered a two-run single to put Bluefield up two.
In the bottom of the ninth, back-to-back doubles by Michael Tollison and Chris Limpach made it a 9-8 game. After a sac bunt, Mitch Williams singled in pinch-runner Andrew Rogers to even the score at 9-all. Montreat then loaded the bases with one out, and Jesse Wise hit a sac fly to center to drive in the game-winning run.
Tollison went 2-for-3 for Montreat with three RBIs, while Kyle Cooper, Wise and Limpach each had two RBIs.
For Bluefield, Coats was 3-for-5 with three RBIs with Josh Christensen and Tyler Fridley each driving in two runs.
The heart of Tennessee Wesleyan's lineup was clicking on all cylinders as the No. 1 Bulldogs posted a 15-4 win over No. 8 Bryan.
The 3-4-5 hitters of Tennessee Wesleyan combined to hit 9-for-12 with eight RBIs and eight runs scored. Zac Bowman and Jered Stanley each went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs, while Adam Reeves was 3-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs. Daniel Lynn ended the game in the seventh with a three-run home run to right-center field.
