SALISBURY, Md. - The top-seed
Salisbury University baseball team needed two games to clinch the
2008 Capital Athletic Conference championship, as it lost the first
game 16-15 but won game two 20-5, over second-seed University of
Mary Washington. The Sea Gulls, ranked No. 3 in the latest
D3baseball.com poll and No. 5 in the coaches' poll, won their third
straight conference title, sixth in the last eight years under
coach Doug Fleetwood. The championship is the
eighth overall since SU joined the CAC in 1995.
Salisbury (36-2) lost a wild up-and-down contest in game one of
the championship series to Mary Washington (24-12) on a walk-off
solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning by senior Jon Sims.
Mary Washington was the home team in the first game even though
Salisbury was the host due to conference rules.
The lost ended the Sea Gulls' nation best winning streak at any
level this season at 35 games. The streak ended just five shy of
the Division III all-time record set by Marietta College who had 40
consecutive victories back in the 1999 season. The loss also
snapped the Sea Gulls 23-game home winning streak. Their last loss
at home came last year in conference regular season on April 11,
2007 at the hands of the Eagles who won a 4-3 thriller in 13
innings.
Game one featured an offensive explosion as the two teams traded
runs all afternoon and combined for 31 runs. The game was a battle
from the onset but it wasn't until the seventh inning when the
tension started to build for both teams. Neither starting pitcher
lasted past the fourth before the pivotal seventh inning.
Senior Ryan Bennick started for Salisbury and
lasted just four innings as he gave up seven runs on 13 hits. Eagle
starter freshman Zach Hendrix lasted just 3 and
2/3 innings as he allowed eight runs (six earned) on eight hits.
The seventh inning began with Salisbury ahead by three runs,
11-8. The first four batters for Salisbury, junior Randy
Boyle (4-for-7, four runs), sophomore Mike
Celenza (1-for-3, three runs), senior Justin
Armiger (4-for-6, two home runs, six RBI) and Mark
Bostwick (2-for-6, three RBI) reached base on back-to-back
singles, a fielding error by the third baseman and another single,
respectively. Boyle scored on the fielding error and Celenza scored
on Bostwick's single to give the Sea Gulls a five-run lead. Armiger
ended up on third base on Bostwick's single and crossed the plate a
batter later on freshman Andrew Miller's ground
out to second. Salisbury extended its lead to 14-8 as the game went
to the bottom half.
Mary Washington would not go away as sophomore Nick Espinosa hit
a solo home run to left field off of SU reliever Lucas
Hanson to lead off the bottom of the seventh. Freshman
Kyle Judson came in to relieve Hanson and recorded
two quick outs but then ran into trouble as he gave up a single,
issued a walk and then was not helped out as an error by freshman
shortstop Will Evans extended the inning for the
Eagles. With the bases loaded and two outs sophomore Frankie
Sheffield hit a bases clearing double on a line drive to center
field that took a bad hop and bounced over junior Jordan
Crystal's head. The double cut Salisbury's lead to 14-12.
The next batter Sims, a senior, tripled to center as the ball
bounced over Crystal's head, again, and rolled all the way to the
fence. Sheffield scored on the play to cut the lead to one, 14-13.
Junior Jeff Feigl came in to relieve Judson and
could not finish off the first two batters he faced as they reached
base via walks to load the bases. The next batter sophomore Seamus
Bergen poked a two-run single up the middle to give the Eagles the
lead 15-14. Freshman Alex Duda (1-1) came in to
replace Feigl and got the next batter to ground out to shortstop to
end the disastrous inning.
Neither team scored in the eighth as the pressure mounted in the
final inning. Salisbury, who needed one run to tie, looked to
Miller to get them started. The freshman entered the game with a
.425 batting average, but could not reach base as he popped out to
the second baseman for the first out. Senior Tyler
Riley (3-for-4, one RBI) was next up and hit a high
chopper to third base but sophomore Will Wright could not come up
with the great play to get Riley at first.
UMW coach Tom Sheridan then went to his bullpen and called on
ace Andrew Cox (8-1), who pitched yesterday to put Mary Washington
into the championship, to come in and close out the game. He struck
out pitch-hitter freshman Matt Anuszewski for the
second out. The fate of the winning streak and the championship
were in the hands of senior Brian Camper (1-for-3,
two runs) as he came to the plate with the tying run on first base
and two outs. During the at-bat, Cox uncorked a wild pitch that
moved sophomore pinch-runner Matt O'Keefe to
second base and into scoring position. Camper then sent what looked
like a game-ending fly ball out to right field but Sims had the
ball hit the heel of his glove and drop to the ground which allowed
O'Keefe to score from second to tie the game at 15-15.
Sims got a chance to redeem himself in the bottom of the ninth
inning as he led off for the Eagles. He blasted his third home run
of the season to left-center field off Duda to give the Eagles the
dramatic 16-15 come-from-behind victory on the walk-off home run.
The Mary Washington win forced a second game to determine the
championship since Salisbury entered with a 3-0 record in the
double-elimination tournament.
Fleetwood turned to junior pitching standout Eric
Willey (8-0) to shut down the Eagle offense, who pounded
out 23 hits in the first game. Coming off a complete game win over
York (Pa.) College and two relief appearances on Thursday and
Saturday. Willey was perfect through 4 and 2/3 innings before
giving up an infield hit to junior Jeff Johnson. Evans made an
excellent back hand snag ranging to his right but Johnson beat the
relay throw by a step.
Salisbury jumped on the board early as Crystal (3-for-6, three
runs) singled to lead off the game and Boyle (3-for-4, three runs,
six RBI) walked to advance him to second. Both were advanced on a
sacrifice bunt by Celenza (3-for-3, three runs, two RBI). During
Bostwick's (2-for-5, one run) at-bat Espinosa had Eagle starter Dan
Murdoch's (2-2) pitch glanced off the heel of his glove and Crystal
scampered home to give Salisbury an early 1-0 lead.
The Sea Gulls put up eight runs in the third inning as they
jumped all over Murdoch who left with the bases loaded, no one out
and a run already across the plate. Senior Chase Townsend came in
to relieve Murdoch and walked the first batter he faced to force in
a run. The next batter he faced was O'Keefe (1-for-4, three RBI)
who hit a 3-run double to right center to give Salisbury a 7-0
lead. The Sea Gulls tacked on two more runs in the inning to
increase their lead to 9-0.
The offense put up seven more runs in the sixth highlighted by
Boyle's first home run of the season, a grand slam to left-center
field.
Mary Washington finally figured out Willey in the eighth and
tagged him for four runs on four hits but it was too-little,
too-late. Willey gave Fleetwood and the Sea Gulls exactly what they
needed. He tossed eight strong innings, allowed four runs on six
hits and struck out nine.
Salisbury put up four more runs in the bottom of the eighth led
by Boyle's second homer of the game, a two-run shot to dead center.
The 5-foot-8 second baseman saw his second home run of the season
clear the 400-foot sign in center. The 2008 CAC champions won in
convincing fashion, 20-5.
The Sea Gulls set two conference records in their quest for
their eighth conference championship. In the two games the Sea
Gulls recorded 19 RBI bringing their season total to 381 which
broke the conference record for RBI in a season for one team. The
old record of 371 was held by the 2002 Sea Gulls.
Salisbury also set the record for most runs in a season by a CAC
team. The Gulls had 35 runs cross the plate in the two games today
giving them 439 runs for the season thus far. Salisbury broke their
own conference record set last year as they had 420 runs cross the
plate in 2007.
The maroon and gold will have six days off before they play
again. The Captains of Christopher Newport University will come to
town to square-off with the Sea Gulls on Saturday, April 26, at 1
p.m.
