2016 G-MAC Baseball Championship Page
MASON, Ohio - Pitching reigned supreme as four games were completed during the first day of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Baseball Championship on Wednesday at PRASCO Park.
The top three seeds in the six-team bracket, Trevecca Nazarene, Kentucky Wesleyan and Alderson Broaddus, all advanced on the winner’s side, while Cedarville and Ohio Valley remain alive.
The fifth-seeded Fighting Scots survived an elimination game in the nightcap at Legacy Field, showing the same kind of resiliency that carried them all the way to the championship final a year ago.
Games were tightly contested and no contest was decided by more than three runs despite the possibility of the 10-run rule after seven innings being enforced.
Additional changes to the schedule have been made for Thursday morning’s games as the greater Cincinnati area braces itself for potential heavy rainfall.
Game 5 between Trevecca Nazarene and Cedarville will be played at 9 a.m. EST with video and stats available at Prasco Park. Starting at 9:30 a.m. EST on Legacy Field will be Kentucky Wesleyan and Alderson Broaddus with live stats.
Moments That Mattered
The left side of the D&E infield of Travis Phelps and Michael Wood flashed the leather in the bottom half of the sixth inning with several gold-glove caliber plays in the first game of the tournament.
Phelps got to a ball in the hole at short for a spinning force out at second and led off the top half of the seventh with a ringing double off the wall to help tie the game as he scored on a grounder by Lance VanNoy.
But miscommunication from D&E in the outfield allowed Tyler Tichenor to leg out a triple to open up TNU’s half of the seventh inning.
Tichenor recorded his 17th triple, just one shy of matching the school record of 18 held by Nick Howell. Tichenor tripled, stole a base and had two hits as he was a thorn in D&E’s side in the opening contest.
Kentucky Wesleyan’s Andrew Kirkland made Ohio Valley's J.R. Davis pay for a fastball that leaked out over the heart of the plate, turning on the pitch to rip a two-run homer to deep left field in the bottom of the second inning.
A Troy Paris ground-rule double to left center actually took away a run from Kentucky Wesleyan as Cody Bridges had to retreat back to third base. But a ground out in the next at-bat would bail OVU out of the inning and keep the score at 2-1.
Errors were decisive in the outcomes for Cedarville and Ohio Valley. Ranging from errant throws to misplayed fly balls, the defensive miscues hurt their respective chances in the middle innings.
The middle of the batting order (3, 4, 5 hitters) of Ohio Valley was a combined 8-for-13 as the bats came alive in a do-or-die game against Davis & Elkins.
It might not exactly be San Francisco's famed McCovey Cove, but D&E's Lance VanNoy sent a home run floating into the adjacent body of water behind Legacy Field. Kids were flocking to peer over the fence and view VanNoy's shot.
Starring Roles
Trevecca Nazarene southpaw Jesse Peters had some extra zip on his fastball as the Trojans rode his 10-strikeout, nine-inning complete-game gem to victory.
Power is hard to come by at Prasco Park, especially on a day with wind at a minimum. Kentucky Wesleyan’s Kirkland launched a two-run homer to left field to open the scoring against Ohio Valley.
Already the conference’s all-time leader in strikeouts, Dobnak padded those totals with eight batters fanned in as many innings. He has racked up 220 in his time with the Battlers as a member of the G-MAC.
Trip Aces
Coaches weren’t afraid to go to their big guns on the first day of the tournament. Others were holding back to save their best for last.
Respective No. 1’s Garrett Baker (Cedarville) and Randy Dobnak (Alderson Broaddus) dueled each other. J.R. Davis (Ohio Valley) went deep into the late innings against Kentucky Wesleyan with a quality start that included seven innings, five strikeouts and two earned runs.
Still, other pitchers like John Bolton and Bryan Smith of Trevecca Nazarene, G-MAC Pitcher of the Year Tyler Stage of Alderson Broaddus, have yet to make their anticipated entrance.
Coaches elected to go with impressive underclassmen like Mitchell Jones (Kentucky Wesleyan), who went eight innings and gave up just two runs on four hits. D&E frontline starter Zach Bradfield displayed an impressive curveball to keep the Senators in contention against TNU.