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Shorter's SSAC Tourney run ends with loss to William Carey
COLUMBUS, Ga. -- They had looked the best the Southern States Athletic Conference had to offer in the eye and risen to the occasion twice already.
Unfortunately for the Shorter University baseball team, William Carey University stood just a bit too tall.
Zach Magee tossed 4.2 brilliant innings and Quin Stokes hit a game-changing grand slam with two outs in the sixth to lift the Crusaders to a 9-6 win over Shorter in an elimination game in the final four of the SSAC Baseball Tournament at Golden Park in Columbus.
The loss knocks Shorter (40-18) from contention for its first conference championship since 2003. It also puts an end to what was an exciting run through the SSAC Tourney for the Hawks, who took down a pair of ranked teams -- then No. 6-ranked Auburn University-Montgomery and 18th-ranked Southern Poly State -- on their way to Tuesday's action.
William Carey is one of three teams left in the double elimination tournament -- the Crusaders are taking on Brewton-Parker in Tuesday's nightcap to see who will meet up with Belhaven in Wednesday's 1 p.m. championship game.
Shorter will now have to sit back and wait to see if it is granted an at-large bid into the NAIA Baseball National Championship.
In a battle between a pair of No. 4 seeds, one swing of the bat in the middle innings turned the tide of what was a back-and-forth affair.
Shorter, the fourth seed out of the SSAC East Division, had built a 6-4 lead by the sixth inning behind timely hitting and a gutsy pitching performance from senior Tim Day, who was pitching for the third time in five days after having recorded the win in the Hawks' dramatic 4-3 win over Poly on Monday.
William Carey, the No. 4 seed out of the SSAC West Division, loaded the bases with two outs in its half of the sixth for Stokes, the team's leader with 10 home runs entering Tuesday's game.
Stokes worked the count full before depositing a 3-2 curve ball over the building behind the right field wall, turning a 6-4 deficit into an 8-6 lead.
From that point on, Shorter managed just three hits as Magee, who entered in the fifth for William Carey starter Taylor Martin, pounded the strike zone and kept Shorter's hitters off balance with a timely breaking ball.
The Hawks did put their first two runners on in the top of the ninth as Cody Hooper and Will Davis hit back-to-back singles, but Magee bore down, recording two straight strikeouts and forcing a pop out in first base foul territory to end the game.
Shorter was the aggressor early, getting a Jordan Hollis RBI single in the first and a Dadynoel Lorenzo RBI double in the second to take a 2-0 lead.
Following a 15-minute lightening delay, the Crusaders pushed across three runs in the second to take a 3-2 lead, but the Hawks responded with four runs in the fourth. Clint Harkins scored on an error by William Carey first baseman Carlos Castro, Blake McCullers tripled home a pair of runs and Hollis stroked his second RBI single of the day as Shorter jumped out to a 6-3 lead after four innings.
Javier Ortiz tripled and scored on a Castro single in the bottom of the fifth to pull Carey back to within 6-4, but Shorter still had the momentum until Stokes' bomb in the sixth turned the tide for the Crusaders.
William Carey manufactured an insurance run in the seventh as Will White hit an RBI single for a 9-6 lead and Shorter simply ran out of outs as the Crusaders' run through the tourney continued.
Hooper finished 3-for-4 for the Hawks, who matched William Carey's 13 hits on the day. Hooper's performance came at an opportune time -- the three hits were the first of the tournament for the junior.
Hollis went 2-for-5 with the two RBI. McCullers also had two RBI and Lorenzo and Lou Amargo had one RBI apiece.
Day took the loss, but put forth a warrior-like effort. The Australian allowed eight runs, but only one was earned. He gave up 10 hits and struck out five while throwing 105 pitches.
Magee got the win for William Carey, which scored all nine of its runs with two outs. Magee went 4.2 innings and surrendered just four hits while fanning six.
The Hawks struck out 14 times and left 13 runners on base.
The Hawks are hoping that 40 wins in arguably the toughest baseball conference in the country, coupled with a pair of upset wins in the SSAC Tournament, will be enough to warrant a national bid. Shorter will discover its postseason fate after the selection committee meets next week.
