MASON, Ohio – After another trio of games were wrapped up on Friday, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Baseball Championship stage has ultimately been set between No. 1 Trevecca Nazarene and No. 5 Ohio Valley.
The G-MAC Championship final portion of the double-elimination bracket will play itself out at PRASCO Park (field one) with the first pitch start time officially moved up to 10 a.m. EST in anticipation of possible weather conditions.
G-MACsports.com will stream the game live with video/audio and stats beginning at 9:50 a.m.
After escaping the first game of the day in a tightly-contested battle vs. OVU, TNU emerged unbeaten at 3-0 in the tourney and only has to win one game tomorrow to claim another conference title.
Ohio Valley fell to TNU, but recovered to defeat Alderson Broaddus in the nightcap to officially eliminate the second-seeded Battlers and put the Fighting Scots in the championship round.
OVU now sits at 3-1 in the bracket after playing 18 more innings on Friday and will need to beat TNU twice tomorrow in order to take the G-MAC trophy back home to Vienna, W.V.
Trevecca Nazarene 8, Ohio Valley 5
In a game pitting two unbeatens in the conference tournament, the Trojans survived a relentless effort from the Fighting Scots to win its third straight in the postseason.
Starting pitcher Bryan Smith struck out nine over seven innings to earn the winning decision while Austin Sisk recorded an unconventional two-inning save to preserve the final decision.
G-MAC Player of the Year Hunter Newman drilled a double and a triple while Carter Wiseman and Bryson Shelton each had a pair of hits.
OVU was able to strike first, on a bases-loaded double play, but four runs put up by TNU in the fourth would erase a one-run edge. Tyler Proctor tied the game up at 5-5 with a two-run single for Ohio Valley while TNU’s Clayton Nichols recorded the game-winning RBI with two outs in the eighth inning.
Ethan Hurt doubled home an insurance run in the ninth, but was injured trying to stretch into a triple.
Alderson Broaddus 3, Cedarville 1
Following in the footsteps of Chris Boatto and Randy Dobnak, it was Tyler Stage’s turn to complete an impressive outing on the mound, this time to eliminate Cedarville from contention.
Deonte Settles doubled and scored to begin the game, but Cedarville countered with a Marshall Johnson game-tying single in the fifth.
Senior catcher Daniel Essian laid down a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the fourth, but after a barehanded throwing error at third, Essian found himself standing on second and teammate Travis Hurley crossing the plate to give AB a 2-1 lead.
Tyler Hurt relieved starter Sean Larkin and AB was able to get a sacrifice fly in play to plate another run for a 3-1 edge.
Ohio Valley 5, Alderson Broaddus 2
Ohio Valley quickly jumped to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when catcher Cody Morris ripped a double to the left-center gap. The Fighting Scots executed their situational hitting as Logan Dan came through with a pair of RBI grounders to the right side of the infield.
After trading runs the next couple innings, both starters settled down. Center fielder Andrew Allen added a fifth run to the scoreboard on a ground out in the seventh inning, but was just insurance as OVU rode momentum with starting pitching once again.
OVU pitcher Tucker Hughes, who already threw nine innings against AB on Wednesday, pitched another nine-inning complete-game gem, giving up just eight hits and surrendering two runs.
The Cinderella story continues as the fifth-seeded Fighting Scots take its 3-1 tournament record into a rematch vs. Trevecca Nazarene in which they will need to win two games.