MILLINGTON, Tenn. - Both of the SCAC's top 10 nationally ranked teams, Birmingham-Southern and Trinity advanced to the winner's bracket semifinals of on day two of the 2012 SCAC Baseball Championship tournament. Official Championships Website
GAME FOUR RECAP
Millsaps College senior left fielder Ryan Zemke helped make sure the Majors would live to play another day at the SCAC Tournament after a 4 for 5 performance in the Majors' 6-2 elimination game victory over Hendrix in game four the the 2012 conference championship. Box Score
Zemke helped pace a Millsaps offense that finally was able to take advantage of run scoring opportunities. He was one of four Majors that posted a multi-hit performance. Zemke also drove in a run.
Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth, Millsaps cut the the Hendrix lead in half thanks to Keith Shumaker's RBI single through the right side that scored Jerrod Meyers.
Millsaps (26-15) finally capitalized on run scoring opportunities in the bottom of the sixth where they added four runs and turned a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 lead. The inning started with Meyers walk and he would eventually come around to score the tying run on Shumaker's safety squeeze. Later in the inning, the Majors benefitted from back-to-back run scoring doubles from Stephen Gates and Zemke to take the 5-2 lead.
Hendrix (22-20) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning. After reaching on a bunt single, Kyle Raskin scored on J.T. Bowen's RBI triple to center field. Aaron Bowen then singled home his younger brother J.T. Bowe to take the game's first lead.
Millsaps added a run in the bottom of the eighth to provide the winning margin. First-year starting pitcher Samuel Doucet picked earned the win for the Majors after tossing seven innings and allowing just two earned runs. He struck out one and scattered six hits and walked just one Warrior hitter. Doucet improved to 2-1 on the season.
Hendrix starting pitcher Geoff Lomax suffered the loss after pitching 5.2 innings. Lomax allowed five earned runs on eight hits, walked four and struck out two.
Millsasps advances in the loser's bracket and will face either Rhodes, Birmingahm-Southern or Dallas tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. CT. in another elimination game.
GAME FIVE RECAP
Trinity University rallied for a 10-9 extra-inning victory over the University of Dallas, at the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament on Friday evening. Box Score
Trinity improves to 34-8 with the victory, which was the team's third extra-inning win of the season.
After Dallas took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, the Tigers came back with two runs in the fifth to pull ahead briefly. Dallas quickly answered with an emphatic six-run fifth inning to go up by five runs over the West Division's top seed.
Trinity was able to get four of the runs back in the top of the sixth, but then Dallas made it 8-6 with an insurance run in the bottom of the inning.
In the ninth, Trinity's first two batters reached on base hits, then Kelly Woodruff recorded his 13th sacrifice bunt of the season to drive in a run to make it 8-7. After an intentional walk to Christian Muscarello, Nick Pappas crushed the first pitch to the gap in right-center field for a two-run double that put the Tigers ahead 9-8.
With its tournament life on the line, Dallas rallied for a run in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of a two-base error that followed a leadoff walk - scoring on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 9-9.
Neither team scored again until the 11th, when Woodruff led off the inning with a double to right field. After Muscarello's sacrifice to move Woodruff to third, Pappas picked up the game-winning RBI on a sacrifice fly to right field. Dallas put the tying run on in the 11th, but Trinity held on for the win.
Pappas led Trinity with three RBI, while Kevin Francke had two hits and two RBI for the Tigers. Kevin Clements also had two hits, scoring two runs. Muscarello scored two runs, while Dominick Robusto and Ryan Schweers both picked up a pair of hits.
Woodruff was 2-3 with two runs and one RBI, drawing two walks to reach base four times. Both of his hits were for extra bases, hitting a double and a triple in the game.
Franklin Bay started the game for Trinity, going 4.1 innings, and allowing two runs on three hits. Later in the fifth, senior Weston Haaf came on in relief. Haaf threw 3.1 innings, giving up just two runs - one earned - on four hits, and striking out a pair of batters.
Michael Bentz (5-1) got the win for the Tigers, allowing no runs on just one hit over the final three innings.
Trinity advances to tomorrow's action at the SCAC Baseball Championships, against either Birmingham-Southern or Rhodes. Dallas is eliminated from the tournament.
GAME SIX RECAP
The No. 9 Birmingham-Southern baseball team kept up its winning ways today with an 8-4 victory against Rhodes in the second round of the 2012 SCAC Baseball Championship in Millington, Tenn. Box Score
The Panthers, the top seed in the East, move to 33-7, while the Lynx, the two-seed in the East, fall to 27-14.
BSC moves on to face No. 8 Trinity, the top seed in the West, tomorrow at noon.
BSC kicked off the scoring quickly, going up 2-0 in the top of the first inning courtesy of RBIs from sophomore Austin Justice and freshman Zach Wagner. Rhodes added one run in the bottom of the first, but the Panthers scored twice more in the top of the third, this time on RBIs from senior Jon Walker and sophomore Jeremy Hatley, to take a 4-1 lead.
The Lynx cut it to 4-3 in the bottom of the third, but BSC stayed a couple steps ahead, scoring twice in the top of the fifth off two more RBIs from Justice and Hatley. The Panthers scored single runs in both the eighth and ninth, one on an error and another on a wild pitch, and allowed Rhodes to score once in the eighth.
Wagner led BSC at the plate with four of its 12 hits, going 4-5. Justice was 3-5 and Hatley was 2-5.
Senior Jesse Meier started and threw 4.1 innings, allowing five hits and three earned runs with four strikeouts. Sophomore Miles Nordgren came in for the next three innings and got the win, moving to 8-2 on the year after giving up one hit and striking out two batters. Freshman David Bourbonnais threw the final 1.2 innings and picked up his fifth save of the year.