MARSHALL, Texas – Hearts were heavy at Tiger Ball Park at Woods Field on Saturday night as no. 2 East Texas Baptist University's bid to repeat as American Southwest Conference Tournament Champions ended in the semi-finals. ETBU fell to Texas Dallas (no. 2 seed) in the second elimination game of the day, 3-2. In the first elimination game of the day, ETBU held off McMurry University (no. 5 seed), 6-3. ETBU is now 36-8 overall and will wait to see what the NCAA Division III Committee will do on Selection Monday, May 13.
Game 1
ETBU 6, McMurry 3
Taking a 6-1 lead through five innings, ETBU's offense had a hard time getting started with 10 hits in the game and left 11 runners on base.
Nick Massarini went 3-of-4 with one RBI to lead the team.
Jacob Evangelista added two RBI on two hits as
Connor Massimini had one RBI on one hit.
Cameron French and
Carson Wilson both added at RBI.
Landry Powell went 4.2 innings for the win moving to 2-0 on the year with five strikeouts.
Jacob Sherman followed with 2.2 innings of work and two strikeouts.
Robert Croft finished the final 1.2 innings for his ninth save of the year allowing just one hit.
ETBU scored one in the first and third inning for a 2-0 lead. In both the second and third innings, ETBU left the bases loaded and scored just one run. The fifth inning brought five runs for a 6-1 lead but a two-run home in the sixth by McM cut the lead to three, 6-3. ETBU held onto the lead to advance on.
Game 2
UTD 3, ETBU 2
A two-run rally in the final two innings fell short of a comeback as ETBU's bid for a second ASC Tournament championship ended. ETBU had two runners on and two outs after scoring one run to pull within one, 3-2, before a fly out ended the rally and game.
Neely went 6.2 innings allowing just one earned run with six strikeouts but received he loss. Croft went 1.1 innings with one strikeout and one hit and
Brayden Hodges pitched the ninth not allowing anything with one strikeout.
ETBU had eight hits as
Dylan Burnaman and
Nick Massarini both had two hits. Burnaman and Rumachik earned the RBI.
There were six scoreless innings of play between the two teams. ETBU had a runner on second base in both the first and second inning but couldn't bring him in. In the fourth inning, there were two runners on and two outs but a ground out ended the threat. Once again in the fifth there was a runner on second with two outs but a fly out happened as the inning ended. Another double in the sixth with one out by Rumachik put ETBU in a position to score but a strikeout and ground out once again ended any chances of scoring.
It was the top of seventh when UTD scored on an error and then two batters later had a two-run home run for the 3-0 lead. Rumachik had a sac fly in the eighth for the first run to cut the lead to two, 3-1. In the ninth, a walk and a single with one out gave ETBU some life. A flyout followed but Burnaman singled in the second run of the game with two outs. The game then ended on a fly out with runners on first and second as UTD advanced to the championship game.
