MARSHALL, Texas – A historic post-season run for no. 2 East Texas Baptist University continues into the NCAA Division III National Championship Series after a 5-2 win over no. 13 Rowan University. ETBU has now won 23 games in a row winning a program best 46 games heading to the program's second-ever berth in the National Championship Series. It was 2010 when ETBU last was in the national championship as they defeated Linfield University, twice, for the program's only national championship.
"These girls did a great job of coming out and finding the energy and adjust to things. That is just a testament to our team this year. When someone goes down, something changes, or we need somebody to step up – it's somebody different every week," said head coach
Janae Shirley. "Tristen (Maddox) and Tauryn (Cummings) (at presser) are fixtures of our program all year and carried us leadership wise and allowed us to be a fun team. I am super proud of them and of our team's performance today."
Defense carried ETBU as Maddox,
Courtney White, Cummings,
Delanie Loya,
Braidee Glenn,
Haylie Stum and
Shelby Navarrete in the infield had a solid wall snagging big plays the entire game.
Emma Bell,
Izabella Morales, and Mary Frances made it difficult for batters to get on base catching the hard hits and keeping runners from not advancing home.
Avery Holland went the distance to move to 15-0 allowing just one earned run on six hits and retired the side, twice.
Collecting 12 hits, White, Cummings, Stum, and Morales combined for 10 of those. White and Cummings were both 3-of-4 as Stum went 2-of-4 and Morales was 2-of-2. Stum led the team with two RBI as White, Loya, and Morales had one RBI.
Rowan struck first in the top of the first inning scoring on a groundout with one out for the 1-0 lead. That is the only time the Profs would have the lead as ETBU came out with their blazing offense in the bottom of the first. Maddox, White, and Cummings started off the inning with three straight hits. Maddox singled to left center field and then came home from first base off of White's double that hit off the top of the wall to tie the game. After a line out and a fielder's choice, ETBU scored two runs on two outs. It started with a Loya single down the left field line bringing in Cummings. Morales then followed with a single to left field scoring Bell for the 3-1 lead.
With two outs in the second inning, three straight singles took place again starting with White. She singled up the middle and then went to second on a Cummings single that she just barely beat the tage at first base. Stum then had a hard single off the third baseman's glove that allowed White to score giving ETBU a three-run advantage, 4-1.
The top of the third brought a 1-2-3 inning from Holland but ETBU went scoreless also in the inning. In the fourth inning, Rowan threatened with runners on second and third with one out. Two straight groundouts ended the inning with one going to Maddox and the other to White. Stum picked up her second RBI of the game with a single to left field as White came in for the fifth run. That is all ETBU would need to win the game.
Two ground outs with a hit-by-pitch and a pop up to Maddox was all Rowan could muster in the fifth inning. ETBU tried to score in the fifth but was thrown out at home on a fielder's choice. Holland retired the side in the sixth but Rowan found a way to rally in the seventh inning. They scored a run with two outs to pull within three, but Navarrete was quick with the glove at first base to end the game as ETBU advance to the National Championship Series.
ETBU will now face no. 10 Belhaven University in a three-game series starting on Tuesday, June 4, at 11:00 a.m. at Bell Park at Taylor Field. There will be one game on Tuesday and two games on Wednesday.
