(Story taken from the Millsaps College website)
MOLINE, Ill. - The 2nd-seeded Millsaps College
Majors showed little rust from a 20-day layoff, scoring three runs
in their opening at-bat and rallying behind its defense to hold on
for a 5-3 win in the Central Regional over 5th-seeded Wartburg
College. Box
Score I Tournament
Website
Millsaps advances to play Wisconsin-Whitewater at 4 p.m.
tomorrow (moved up from 7 p.m.) after the Warhawks rallied for
two runs in the bottom of the ninth to defeat Wash-U.
Senior left-hander Tait Hendrix went a
solid 6.1 innings and struck out six, while allowing just one
earned run, to earn the victory and move to 7-1. Shelby Robertson
grabbed his second save of the year in recording the final
out. Jerrold Martijn dropped to 10-2 in his third consecutive
complete game performance.
Millsaps (33-8) struck for three runs in the bottom of the
first after retiring the Knights in order in their
half. Jeremy Aliff, who
was back in the lineup after an eight-game hiatus, drew a leadoff
walk and was followed by Hendrix's single to center to get things
going. Will Hawkin's sac
fly to left scored the first run, and after a double steal with two
outs, Russ Boyd's two-RBI
single to left stretched the lead to 3-0 after one.
The Majors would add two more runs in the third off Josh Ordeneaux's
two-RBI double down the leftfield line to take a commanding 5-0
lead.
Hendrix set down the first 10 batters he faced and cruised into the
fourth inning before running into trouble with the bases loaded and
just one out. The senior, however, worked out of the jam and
got Patrick Grau to go down on strikes and Kyle Jones to fly out to
center to end the threat.
After stranding the bases loaded again in the sixth, Wartburg
finally found the scoreboard in the top of the seventh,
using Martijn's fielder's choice that scored two runs.
The second Knight run came unearned as a throwing error sailed into
the dugout and allowed the runner to score automatically.
Major reliever Drew Maddox, who
entered with one out in the seventh, worked out of a jam in the
eighth to keep Millsaps ahead 5-2, getting an inning-ending double
play.
Wartburg put together one last push in the top of the ninth,
loading the bases for a third time in the game with one out.
Mike Johnson's RBI-single cut the lead to 5-3 and kept the Knights'
hopes alive before Robertson came in with two outs and got A.J.
Lewis to groundout to short to end the game.
Millsaps was led offensively by Hendrix and Ordeneaux with two hits
apiece, while Boyd drove in a pair of runs. Martijn and
Johnson picked up the two RBIs for the Knights.
Game Notes:
- Millsaps stole a season-high eight bases, led by Owen with three
- Wartburg stranded 13 total runners, including the bases loaded three times
- Millsaps moved to 1-1 all-time vs. Wartburg in the NCAA Tournament
.gif?max_width=280&max_height=139&crop=true)
.gif?max_width=280&max_height=139&crop=true)
