Transylvania Claims First HCAC Baseball Tournament Championship
May 10, 2008 (Transy Release)
AMELIA, OH - Transylvania bounced back from disappointment in a big way Saturday, hitting Rose-Hulman with a seven-run rally in the second inning and six more in the fourth en route to a 16-10 win over Rose-Hulman, clinching its first Heartland Conference tournament championship.
The Pioneers and Engineers had to play twice Saturday after Rose-Hulman got a walk-off 10th inning home run to post a 5-4 win in the first game. The Engineers (31-13) had to play three full nine-inning games in one day after knocking off Franklin 9-5 in a noon game to earn the right to play the Pioneers for the HCAC championship and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tourney.
Transy (31-12) shook off the bitter loss to go up 9-0 after just two innings, then blew the game open with six runs in the fourth. The 2008 campaign marks Transy's first 30-win season and first HCAC tourney championship along with the first NCAA Championship bid in school history.
It did not come easily. Transy needed 13 innings to get past HCAC regular season champion Mt. St. Joseph in the tourney opener, then had to score four times in the final three innings to upend Franklin, 7-5. Then came the first Rose-Hulman game, when Transy lost a 4-2 fifth inning lead and, after the Engineers tied the game in the eighth, left the bases loaded in the 10th inning before the two-out game-winning blast.
As the No. 4 seed, Transy was the visitor in each of its four tourney games. It worked to their advantage in the championship game when, batting first, the Pioneers were able to grab the early lead before the Engineers came to bat.
Phil Blakely's two-out, two-run single got things going as Transy went up 2-0 in the first. Blakely had four hits, five RBI and two runs scored in the contest.
During their seven-run rally in the second, Nick Moser led off with a double and came around to score on an error. Ben Young had a single to bring in another run and Blakely's bases-loaded walk brought in the third score of the frame. Bryan Baker's triple cleared the bases and Ben Kuebbing brought him home with a fly out.
Mitch Kuczek had a two-run single in the fourth and Moser, Evan Rhea, Tim Bauman, and Blakely added RBIs during the rally
Mitch Florence, appearing in his third tourney game, got the start for the Pioneers and went two innings, permitting three runs and three hits along with five walks. Junior Chris Jackson relieved in the third and allowed two runs and three hits in three innings, getting one strike out and not issuing a walk.
Jackson (2-0) was followed to the mound by Kyle Herbstreit, Daniel Rhea, Jeff Hatfield, and Brent Roach.
Rose-Hulman was victimized by four errors in the first four innings, accounting for four unearned runs. transy returned the favor in the eighth, making two errors and giving up three unearned run as Rose-Hulman pulled to within seven runs.
Bauman and Adam Clark each scored three runs and had three of Transy's 14 hits. Moser and Bauman had two hits apiece.
Transy won the HCAC regular season title a year ago, but lost its first two games in the league tournament. The HCAC tourney winner gets the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championships.
NCAA Division IIII tourney pairings and sites will be announced on Monday. The tournament begins on Wednesday.