Eagles Eliminated from SoCon Tournament
5/26/2013 2:54:00 AM | Baseball
Elon 7, Georgia Southern 6 (May 25, 2013 at Greenville, S.C.)
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Elon................ 001 100 500 - 7 12 3 (31-28) Georgia Southern.... 301 200 000 - 6 9 1 (27-31) |
Pitchers: Elon - Jacob Baker; Brandon Kacer(3); Dylan Clark(4); Kyle Webb(9).
Georgia Southern - Jason Richman; Kyle Rowe(4); Matt McCall(7); Justin Hess(8).
Doubles: Elon - Ryan Kinsella(19), Antonio Alvarez(14), Tyler McVicar(3), Chris Bresnahan(2).
Georgia Southern - Scooter Williams(11).
Triples: None
Home Runs: None
Win-Dylan Clark(6-4) Save-Kyle Webb(1) Loss-Kyle Rowe(4-4)
T-2:54 A-647 Weather: 70, sunny
GREENVILLE, S.C. - No. 3 seed Elon scored five runs in the seventh inning and thwarted No. 7 seed Georgia Southern's ninth-inning rally Saturday to earn a 7-6 victory at the Southern Conference Baseball Championship at Fluor Field. The Phoenix advances to Sunday's title game, where it will meet No. 4 seed The Citadel.
Elon (31-28) won four straight games to reach the championship tilt, including a pair of rallies against the Eagles (27-31) on Saturday.
Trailing 6-2 heading to the top of the seventh, GSU quickly recorded two outs before Elon started its rally. Alex Swim singled to get things going, with SoCon Player of the Year Ryan Kinsella drawing a walk behind him. Sebastian Gomez and Casey Jones followed with RBI singles, and Antonio Alvarez hit a two-run double to tie the game at 6. Chris King then sent the first pitch he saw into right center to score Alvarez with what would prove to be the winning run.
The Eagles would not go quietly, however, bringing in ace Justin Hess – who threw 141 pitches in a four-hit shutout in GSU's opener on Thursday morning – to open the eighth inning. Hess showed no ill effects, striking out the side on 11 pitches.
Hess was again up to the task in the ninth, surrendering just a two-out single to give Georgia Southern a chance in the bottom half.
The Eagles seemed poised to rally, putting runners on second and third with no one out after a pair of infield singles and an error. One out later, T.D. Davis was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Elon went to its ace, Kyle Webb, who started Wednesday against Furman. Webb induced a fielder's choice as the Phoenix nipped the speedy Scooter Williams at the plate for the second out of the inning, and Stryker Brown lined out to shallow center to end it.
Just like in Saturday's first game between the squads, an 11-4 Elon win, GSU jumped out to a big lead, only to see the Phoenix turn things around with a big inning late.
This time, the Eagles scored three runs in the first inning, with Chase Griffin, Brown and Tyler Avera recording RBIs in the frame.
After the teams traded single runs in the third, Elon got an RBI double from Tyler McVicar in the fourth to pull within two at 4-2. The Eagles answered with two runs in the bottom half of the frame on Williams' RBI single and an Elon error.
Dylan Clark (6-4) earned the win for Elon, throwing five innings of three-hit, scoreless relief. Webb earned his first save with 2/3 of an inning of scoreless work.
GSU reliever Kyle Rowe (4-4) took the loss after surrendering five runs on six hits in 3 1/3 innings.
Elon will be making its third title game appearance and first since 2009. The Phoenix won the title in 2008. The Citadel, an 11-4 winner over Appalachian State earlier Saturday, will be making its 11th appearance and is seeking its ninth title.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics, and its "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS.
