CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – A Texas storm came to Iowa on the first day of the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament as #15/19 East Texas Baptist University upset #2 Salisbury University, 7-3. Battling through an hour and 45-minute rain delay, ETBU held onto their 7-0 lead winning their first-ever NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament game moving to 41-13 on the year. Salisbury was the 2022 NCAA Division II National Runner-Up and 2021 National Champion.  
 
"What an experience and environment we had to play in here at the championship tournament and for these guys to have that opportunity is outstanding," said head coach Jared Hood. "I thought we came out and played well and ambushed them a little bit, got a hit early, and we had our horse on the mound in Collins and I thought he did an outstanding job."
 
Collins worked through the rain delay and came back out to finish what he started after being off the mound for an hour and 45 minutes. He had 10 strikeouts through 4.2 innings pitched when the game was paused for a weather delay. Most times, pitchers don't come back after the rain delays, but Collins wanted the ball. He said, "I laid it all out there for my teammates (after the rain delay) because they are going out there and doing it for me. The goal was to get through the sixth and I made it through the seventh."
 
He finished the game with 13 strikeouts, which is second most in his career, and posted his 11^th career game with 10 or more strikeouts. Facing a team that leads the nation in scoring per game at 11.3 runs, Collins allowed just three hits and two runs on a home run in seven innings of work. The win moved him to 12-2 on the year as he continues to set the single season record for strikeouts at 135. Robert Croft shut down the Seagulls in the eighth and ninth inning giving up two hits and one earned run with a strikeout.
 
ETBU's offense was nothing to mess with, either, as everybody in the lineup recorded a hit. Jacob Evangelista led the 14-hit barrage with three hits and now has 84 hits on the season. He is one shy of tying the ETBU single season record of 85 set by Tim Brown in 1980. Adding two hits were Carson Wilson, Jordan Hara, and Brett Wagner. Ben Lea, Wagner, Nick Chavez all had two RBI while Evangelista had one RBI.
 
Jumping out on the 2022 NCAA Division III Pitcher of the Year, Salisbury's Jimmy Adkins, ETBU scored five runs in the first four innings. Lea grounded out in the first inning to bring in Wilson for the 1-0 lead. In the third, Lea made it 2-0 with a single to second base as Wilson scored again. Wagner then had a one-out double to center field making it 4-0 as Lea and Wilson came in for the third time. In the fourth inning, Evangelista singled up the middle as Nicolas Chavez was the fifth run of the game.
 
Just as ETBU was heating up, the weather delay came and the Tigers had to wait almost two hours before playing again. It didn't take long to score as Chavez singled up the middle scoring Nick Massarini and Jase Jones for the 7-0 lead.
 
Salisbury had a two-run home run in the sixth and then their third run came in the ninth on a wild pitch.
 
ETBU will play #3 Lynchburg on Saturday at 7:45 p.m.