The top-seed Louisiana State – Shreveport ended the Lewis-Clark State College baseball season with a 7-3 win in an elimination game Monday at the NAIA World Series.
Devin Greco hit a walk-off grandslam homerun in the bottom of the 9th inning propelling the Pilots past the Warriors.
Lewis-Clark State jumped out to a 3-0 lead after four innings on the strength of a two-out two-run single by senior outfielder Jordan Payne and a fourth inning RBI single by senior outfielder Connor Moore. But the Pilots responded with two runs in the 6th, and a run in the 7th to tie it at 3. And after a Ridge Gonsoulin single and a double by Kyle Pearson, the Warriors intentionally walked Greg Friesen to load the bases – setting the stage for the walk-off win.
On mound, Jake Kight pitched 2 innings of shutout ball to pick up the win and improve to 4-0. Junior Mitchell Wilhite pitched 2.2 innings of relief – allowing 5 runs on 5 hits in falling to 2-2.
With the win, LSU-S moves to 52-5 on the year, while the Warriors end the season with a record of 42-14.
In other action – Point Park of Pennsylvania eliminated the University of South Carolina – Beaufort 12-8. Ossie Alfonso went 2-4 with 3 RBI, and Lee Bodnar had three hits and drove in two in the win. Derek Peluso went five innings – and despite giving up 7 earned runs – picked up the win to improve to 10-1.
In the winner’s bracket: Tennessee Wesleyan held off Rogers State of Oklahoma 8-5. Dale Ricketts went 2-4 and had 2 RBI and Jordan Guida hit his 6th homerun as the Bulldogs advanced. Randy Ramirez hit a grandslam homerun in the loss for Rogers State.
And in the nightcap – Lee took advantage of some early fielding problems by Oklahoma City in handing the Stars their first series loss 7-3. Edmanuel Rivera had two runs batted in and Blake Barber went 3-5 at the plate with a run scored and an RBI in the win.
On the mound, lefthander Patrick Merkling went 7 innings allowing 3 runs – only one earned – on three hits in improving to 9-2 for the Flames.
Three games are on tap for Tuesday. At noon PDT Point Park will meet Rogers State in the first of two elimination games. Oklahoma City will battle LSU-Shreveport in the other loser-out game at 3pm PDT. And in a meeting of the tournament’s only remaining unbeaten teams, Tennessee Wesleyan will take on Lee at 6:30pm PDT. Live coverage of all three games can be heard on the Internet at www.koze-sports.com and the Lee/Tennessee Wesleyan game will also be broadcast live locally on Talk Radio 950 KOZE-AM.
