PBC Tournament - Francis Marion Advances to Championship Game 12-9

AIKEN, S.C. – Second-seeded Francis Marion continued their winning ways in their 12-9 Peach Belt Conference Tournament semifinal victory over sixth-seeded UNC Pembroke on Sunday afternoon at Roberto Hernandez Stadium.

Ninth-ranked Francis Marion with the victory improves its record to 35-13-1 in 2009. The Patriots have now obtained a school-record 14 straight victories with Sunday’s semifinal win over UNC Pembroke. FMU will next take on the winner of the #4 North Georgia-#8 Augusta State game in the 2009 PBC Tournament Championship game at approximately 6 p.m. on Sunday evening.

Ranked 29th in NCAA Division II, UNC Pembroke ends the PBC Tournament with a 37-17 record.

Barrett Kleinknecht continued to be the story of the 2009 PBC Tournament so far in Sunday’s Francis Marion semifinal victory. The 2009 All-PBC shortstop was 4-for-5 from the dish in the semifinal, scoring three runs and securing three RBIs. Kleinknecht hit one of two Patriot home runs in the game.

Kleinknecht moved over from his shortstop position in the bottom of the ninth to collect his second save in as many days by pitching a scoreless ninth. He now has five saves on the year.

Pitching in relief of starter Jeremiah Meiners, FMU reliever Erik Sommerville pitched 4.2 innings to acquire his fifth win of the 2009 season. Sommerville struck out one to improve to 5-3.

Josh Bagley took the loss for UNCP in the contest. The Braves starter in the game, Bagley pitched 3.2 innings, allowing six earned runs while striking out just one Patriot batter.

UNCP catcher Edmund Locklear led the Braves at the plate on Sunday afternoon. Locklear was 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI.

Seth Kivett captured UNCP’s lone home run in the contest. The home run proved to be Kivett’s only hit of the day.

UNC Pembroke opened the game by taking an early 4-0 advantage, but Francis Marion took things over in the top half of the fourth with eight runs.

The eight-run inning was part of a three-inning stretch for the Patriots that saw them score all 12 of their runs. FMU followed up the eight run fourth with one in the fifth and three more in the top of the sixth.

Boxscore

UNCP Head Coach Paul O’Neil – “Congrats to Francis Marion.”

“We’re 37 and 17, so we’re still in the mix for an at-large bid. We need Francis Marion to win to have a chance, though.”

“I thought today’s game, we just walked too many guys, we had 8 free passes, and 1 hit batsman. You give Francis Marion 9 free base runners and throw 3 errors on top of that, and it’s hard to beat anyone, especially a team as good as Francis Marion. We didn’t pitch well enough, we had enough runs, we just made crucial mistakes defensively.”

“They had a big 4th inning, they capitalized on our mistakes.”

“The home run by Shuey kind of took a little air out of us.”

“We put 3 up in the 8th, and we had a chance in 6th to score a few, but we left a couple on base there and one in the 7th. We needed those runs to put us in position to win.”

“I’m proud of our team and the year we’ve had, the effort they’ve given me this season has been excellent. I think we’ve taken huge strides for our program.”

“We return a lot of players to the ball club, this experience was a great experience for them. The whole process of playing after exams because we had a two-week layoff was good for us.”

FMU Head Coach Art Inabinet - “Well, I thought they did a good job hitting the ball early, we couldn’t stop them. Sommerville came in and gave us a chance to win. Fortunately we were able to outscore them, and we were able to hang on in the end.”

“We’ve been a big inning team all year, that’s continued the last two days. That’s been kind of our forte for the season, it’s not the way we like to and want to do it, but it’s how it turned out.”

“Our hitters were very patient, and we were able to get their starter out of there.”


“Kleinknecht is a heck of an athlete, not a position on the field he can’t play. We’re lucky he plays for Francis Marion.”

FMU Pitcher Erik Sommerville - “I’m not a strikeout player, I let the players behind me do it. And that’s how I’ve always been.”