CLEVELAND, Miss. – For the first time since 1992, West Alabama will move on to play in the NCAA South Regional Championship game, avenging a first round loss by knocking off defending national champions Nova Southeastern 10-9 at Ferriss Field on Sunday.
The No. 6-seeded Tigers (38-20) will advance to play No. 1 seed and tournament host Delta State (43-11) in an all-Gulf South Conference regional championship game at 1 p.m. on Monday. The No. 3-seeded Sharks (35-18) are eliminated from the tournament.
With one loss already, UWA must defeat the Statesmen twice on Monday to claim the Regional Title and advance to the Division II World Series.
"I'm just proud of the effort my kids gave," UWA head coach
Gary Rundles said. "Nova is another quality program, and they played their hearts out just the same as ours did. At the end of the day, somebody has to win and somebody has to lose.
"Our guys just scrapped. We made a lot of mistakes, but we battled back. There were a lot of situations where most would hang their heads and quit. I tell them all the time, there are two things they control – their attitude and effort. If you can do that, good things will happen."
Nova Southeastern attacked early, taking a 2-0 lead as Dylan Woods launched a two-run homer over right field to bring himself and Sebastian Diaz, who reached via error, around in the top of the first.
Following a
Marcus Morrisette walk to lead off the bottom of the second,
Josh Winningham ripped a triple down the right field line two batters later, chasing the Tiger third baseman home from first to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Nova's Jake Anchia wasted little time at the plate with two outs in the third, rocketing a 1-1 pitch over left field, re-establishing a two-run Shark lead.
However, West Alabama barreled up the ball to start the bottom of the frame as top of the order each reached on singles, loading the bases for clean-up batter
Dylan Little. A shallow fly ball from the Tigers' second baseman was just deep enough for
Nick Delgado, who raced home from third to pull UWA within one.
With runners on first and second,
Tyler Lee placed a single in left field two batters later, allowing
Taylor Stafford to cross the plate on a 180-foot sprint, tying the game at 3-3.
Tiger bats continued to heat up in the next inning, starting with a ground rule double from Delgado. After
Taylor Stafford stuck out but reached on wild pitch,
Luke Phillips singled to right field to drive Delgado home for a 4-3 Tiger lead.
Little hammered a double into the same location to drive Stafford in from second, while a wild pitch on the next at-bat allowed Phillips to touch home, further extending the UWA lead to 6-3.
The battle continued in the bottom of the frame as walk and a single on the first two Shark at-bats set up Woods for two more runs-batted-in, doubling down the right field line to cut the margin to 6-5.
A Tiger error on the next at-bat gave Woods the green light home, leveling the game for the second time, while Kevin Suarez reached third on the play. With Jeremy Vasquez reaching on a walk, the second Tiger error of the frame allowed two more runs to cross the plate, giving the Sharks the lead back at 8-6.
UWA fought back once again as a one-out single from Little put Morrisette in position for a two-run homer, his fourth long ball of the tournament, to even the score for the third time at 8-8 in the bottom on the seventh.
After Andrew Liberty drew a walk to lead off the Nova eighth, a sacrifice bunt advanced him to second before the the fourth UWA error of the game allowed Liberty to break the tie with an unearned run.
Trailing 9-8,
Brock Montgomery walked to lead off the bottom of the frame and advanced to third on a single from Delgado on the next at-bat. Phillips placed a squeeze bunt down to bring Montgomery home, tying the game at 9-9.
Little drew a walk on the next at-bat to load the bases for Morrisette. A tipped ball caught Phillips in a fielder's choice at second, but the delay was long enough for Delgado to give the Tigers the go-ahead run, crossing the plate for a 10-9 lead.
Morrisette came back to the mound for the the second time on the day to close out the game for UWA. A foul fly ball corralled by Winningham split a pair of ground outs as the Tigers secured to 10-9 victory.
Phillips' four hits paced a 14-hit Tiger attack, while Morrisette's three-RBI led all UWA batters. Delgado followed Phillips with three hits. Little and Lee contributed two hits each in the win. Woods led the Shark lineup with two hits and four RBI.
Jonathan Porter (6-3) claimed his second win of the tournament, limiting NSU to one run on one hit in two innings of relief work. Morrisette recorded his third consecutive save in as many outings.
Joe DiBenedetto (6-4) took the loss, allowing the go-ahead run to cross the plate in one-third inning on the mound.
