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MASON, Ohio - A total of six postseason games were completed at Prasco Park and Legacy Field to usher in the start of the 2017 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Baseball Championship on Wednesday.
The composite schedule was accelerated after three games were originally slated to be played on the tournament's opening day. Temperatures reached in the low 70's with minimal winds, the perfect weather for a day of baseball at the spacious venue with activities for kids, free food and a never-ending line for the ice cream.
The tournament schedule is now back on track in its original format with games on Friday to be played at 12:00 (noon), 3:15 p.m. and 6 p.m.
No. 1 Trevecca Nazarene and No. 3 seed Kentucky Wesleyan each won two games to start the six-team bracket. No. 2 seed Malone and No. 5 Ohio Valley each have a 1-1 record.
No. 6 seed Cedarville and the defending tournament champ, No. 4 seed Alderson Broaddus, were both eliminated after suffering two losses.
TNU and KWC will now meet on Friday at noon at Prasco Park while Malone and Ohio Valley will rematch, this time in an elimination format at 3:15 p.m. The winner of OVU/MAL will play the loser of TNU and KWC to conclude the day at 6 p.m.
Prasco Park Power
Just two home runs were sent out of the yard at Prasco Park on Wednesday, but both were no-doubt-about-it moonshots off the thunderous bats of Cedarville's Markus Neff and Kentucky Wesleyan's Josh Galvan.
Under the evening lights in the nightcap, Galvan parked a no-doubter into the right-field standalone bleachers in the top of the sixth inning, a two-run shot that was capped with the strong catcher flexing his biceps at home plate. Galvan showed off his guns in the earlier game vs. AB by throwing out two would-be basestealers.
Neff, a junior Cedarville slugger, ripped a solo shot that was his sixth home run of the season, the only blemish against the line of Malone's Joshua Hurford.
Legacy Field did not surrender a home run in three games.
Moments That Mattered
Kentucky Wesleyan's Cody Bridges delivered a walk-off RBI hit with one out in the 10th inning, capping an end to an entertaining pitcher's duel between the Panthers and Battlers. He scored Nathan Stemle, who had earlier delivered a game-tying RBI hit back in the fifth inning.
The Panthers' Ryan Hundley and AB's Randy Dobnak each went beyond the standard call of duty with more than nine innings pitched for their respective clubs.
Bridges doubled for KWC's first hit of the game, but Hundley and Dobnak exchanged zeroes through the middle innings. The Panthers have endured earlier exits than what they would have liked the past few years, but appear primed as a premier title contender this season.
In the early game, Trevecca Nazarene's Bryan Smith tossed a complete-game shutout to silence Cedarville's offense. The senior right scattered seven hits and struck out one. It was the 31st win of his career and he ranks first all-time in conference history in that category.
The Trojans were buoyed by first-team all-conference hurlers Jesse Peters and Christian Lohr in their second game of the day. Peters fanned seven and Lohr was lights out from the pen with the unconventional three-inning save as he blanked the AB offense.
Ohio Valley's offense tagged Malone's G-MAC Pitcher of the Year Roscoe Blackburn for more earned runs than he had allowed throughout the course of the entire regular season. The Fighting Scots had a lineup loaded with left-handed hitters, not the most ideal scenario when going up against an ace with a 0.64 ERA, but with the league's second-best batting average (.311), OVU consistently put the ball in play.
The Fighting Scots, tournament finalists two years ago, are flourishing under G-MAC Coach of the Year Chad Porter, as the program now has 28 wins. OVU's Chaz Emery doubled as the winning pitcher and leadoff hitter, showing his value as a first-team all-conference utility selection.
In an elimination game, Hurford put the Pioneers on his back with 10 strikeouts to run-rule Cedarville and end the Yellow Jackets tourney run. The offense broke through as G-MAC Freshman of the Year Nate Cobb went 3-for-5 and regular-season batting champ Matt Noel went 2-for-3. Freshman second baseman Zach Mottice delivered three hits and two RBI.