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Shorter stuns top seed AUM in SSAC Tourney first round
COLUMBUS, Ga. -- They had to wait until 10:08 p.m. to take the field for their first round game at the 2011 Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament.
For the Shorter University Baseball Hawks, the end result made everything well worth the wait.
Lou Amargo had a pair of hits and three RBI, Tim Day tossed 6.1 solid innings and the Hawks used a five-run seventh inning en route to an 8-4 upset of SSAC West Division No. 1 seed Auburn University-Montgomery on Friday night and into Saturday morning at Golden Park in Columbus, Ga.
The Hawks (39-16) didn't lock up the victory until AUM's Sam Judah grounded into a game ending 6-4-3 double play at 1:03 a.m. Shorter, the fourth and final seed out of the SSAC East, advances into tomorrow night's 7 p.m. second round game against West Division No. 2 seed Belhaven University, a 9-8 winner over Brewton-Parker in Friday's third first round game.
Shorter certainly saved the best for long last against the Senators and hung around long enough until the bats rolled late in the contest.
Shorter snatched a 3-2 lead in the fourth on Matt Johnson's solo shot to right, but Auburn-Montgomery (40-16) answered back with runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Hunter Cross hit an RBI double with two outs in the fifth and Michael Dugan stroked an RBI double with two outs in the sixth as AUM battled back for a 4-3 edge.
The Hawks went down in order in the sixth, but the best was yet to come.
The momentum changed hands, ironically enough, in the Senators' half of the seventh, when AUM's Chad Mansmann led off with a single, advanced to second on a wild pitch by Day and then scooted to third on a 6-3 groundout by Logan Remson.
Blake Chapman entered in relief of Day and proceeded to halt the threat by striking out Judah and Todd Cherry to close out the top of the seventh.
Shorter's bats fed off the momentum. Cody Hooper was hit by a pitch to lead off the Hawks' seventh and Jordan Hollis walked. After a strikeout, Clint Harkins doubled home Adam Thurman who had pinch run for Hooper to tie the game at 4-4.
Willie Lewis came up huge with his only hit of the day one batter later -- a two-run single up the middle that put Shorter up 6-4 -- and after Dadynoel Lorenzo doubled to put runners on second and third with one out, Amargo struck the final blow with a two-run single up the middle that staked the Hawks an 8-4 edge with six defensive outs to play.
Chapman bore down in the final two innings on the mound, holding the Senators hitless in the eighth before striking out Remson to lead off the ninth and getting Judah to ground into the game ending double play.
Auburn-Montgomery scored twice in the top of the first to take a quick 2-0 lead, but Amargo responded in the bottom half of the opening frame with an RBI single and Kurtis Robinson belted an RBI double to left in the second as the Hawks tied the game a 2-2.
The game was on from there as Johnson cracked his sixth homer of the season to give the Hawks their first lead in the fourth and set the stage for an exciting finish.
Lorenzo, Amargo and Johnson finished with two hits apiece for Shorter, whose top four batters in the lineup went a combined 6-for-16 with three runs, four RBI and a pair of walks. Day allowed two earned runs while scattering 10 hits and striking out five and Chapman got the win after 2.2 innings during which he yielded one hit and fanned four.
