Tennessee Wesleyan Wins 2019 NAIA World Series
LEWISTON, Idaho - A long wait brought a big reward for the top-seeded baseball team Friday night. Even though they fell in their last contest on Wednesday, a championship was still in the team's grasp. All they had to do to take home their second red banner and the 2019 Avista NAIA World Series Championship was defeat the St. Thomas University Bobcats, the sixth seed they defeated 3-2 on a walk-off hit earlier in the World Series. Once the long wait concluded with the 54th out of the game, the 27th for TWU, the Bulldogs found themselves ahead 6-2, making them the 2019 NAIA Baseball National Champions!
Dan Fry got things going early for Tennessee Wesleyan with a single to left field. A sacrifice bunt by Bryce Giles got Fry in scoring position and a wild pitch put the runner a short distance to home plate on third. Braden Mosley, the hero in the walk-off win against the Bobcats, hit a single up the middle to score Fry and give the Bulldogs an early 1-0 advantage.
The scoreboard remained clean for both teams in the second inning as Cole Bellair kept forcing the St. Thomas batters to the spots he wanted them to go. TWU built on their lead in the third inning, starting a stretch of four straight innings with a run scored. Jhosmel Rodriquez began the inning with a single to second base. A throwing error on Fry's fielder's choice sacrifice bunt not only kept Rodriquez on the base paths, but he also made it to third and got Fry to second. A fielding error on a Giles batted ball loaded the bases before a sacrifice fly from Mosley scored Rodriquez, giving the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead.
After a fielder's choice got Shamoy Christopher on-base in the fourth inning, a failed pick-off attempt of courtesy runner Adrian Marquez started a dash around the bases. beating the throw to the dish to push Tennessee Wesleyan ahead 3-0. The excitement of the score carried to the at-bat of Aloysius Cruz, who earned a walk to get on base. Cruz raced around the bases all the way to home plate on Rodriquez's double to make the advantage four runs.
The fifth inning opened with back-to-back hit by pitches, putting Mosley and Williams on base. A double steal put both runners in scoring position, with Mosley being the lead runner on third. A sacrifice fly by Max Draijer to left field allowed Mosley to tag up and sprint down the line to cross home to make the score 5-0. The excitement deflated a little bit when St. Thomas scored a run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the lead to four.
A two-out triple instantly put Tyler Reichenborn in scoring position and brought the energy back in the sixth inning. A fielding error off a Fry batted ball allowed Reichenborn to give the Bulldogs their five-run cushion back when he crossed home plate on the previous error. Another run came across in the bottom half of the sixth but a line out to Draijer on third turned into a double play when the throw to first beat the runner back to the bag, ending the opponent's scoring threat. Jerry Ochoa and Irving Martin came in in relief and helped TWU get to the magical 27th out with the 6-2 lead still intact, making the Bulldogs the 2019 Avista NAIA World Series Champions! This is the program's second national championship.
Rodriquez led at the plate going 2-4 with one run scored and one RBI. Mosley led the team with two RBIs. Bellair had six strikeouts in his 13th win of the season.
Giles was named the Most Valuable Player of the World Series and the Charles Berry Hustle Award winner while Reichenborn was given the Gold Glove Award. Both were named to the All-Tournament Team and joined by Christopher, Mosley, and Bellair.
For the tournament, Tennessee Wesleyan (56-10) led in a number of offensive categories including batting average (.332), slugging percentage (.526), runs scored (41), hits (63) and RBIs (37). The pitching staff for the Bulldogs had the second-best ERA (3.48) of the tournament. The 56 wins on the season are the most in the program's history dating back to at least the 2004 season. The second-most wins in a season dating back to the same time period is 53….the amount the 2012 national championship team had.