AIKEN, S.C. – Belmont Abbey’s Patrick Atwell scored
on a wild pitch in the top of the ninth inning and the sixth-seeded
Crusaders upset the top-seeded and fifth-ranked USC Aiken Pacers,
6-5, on Thursday evening at Roberto Hernandez Stadium.
The contest was the final of the first three games of the NCAA
Division II Southeast Regional on Thursday.
Atwell started the top portion of the ninth frame by collecting a
walk off USC Aiken reliever Chad Benefield. After moving up on a
Justin Vasquez single through the left side to place runners at
first and second for the Crusaders, the two runners then moved up
one base each on a Daniel Kassouf ground out to USC Aiken third
baseman Nick Aranas.
Benefield then dealt a wild pitch to score the eventual
game-winning run in Atwell from third base. With two outs,
Benefield then struck out Spencer Sobol to end the Belmont Abbey
portion of the ninth.
USC Aiken would get one runner on base in the bottom of the ninth,
but they would not be able to muster anything more with the
Crusaders behind the efforts of Jordan Cudney on the hill holding
on for the upset victory.
Cudney improved to 1-3 on the year from the mound with the victory.
Cudney pitched the final 1.1 innings for starter Michael Raymond,
who struck out seven Pacers in 7. 2 innings pitched.
Cudney hurled the final 1.1 innings for Belmont Abbey, fanning
two.
Benefield took the loss for the Pacers in relief of starter Jason
Cochcroft. Benefield , who pitched the final 2.2 innings, is now
4-2 on the 2009 season. Cochcroft fanned four in his 6.1 innings on
the mound from the start for USC Aiken.
Belmont Abbey opened the game with Kassouf belting a home run to
left field to give the Crusaders a 1-0 lead.
USC Aiken would take its only lead of the game in the bottom of the
fourth with three runs that put them ahead 3-1. Ken Raborn kicked
off the stanza by blasting his 14th home run of the year in the
inning.
Belmont Abbey would then take a 6-3 lead that was cut to one by
single Pacer runs each in the bottom of the seventh and eighth
innings. The Pacers would get no closer though with Belmont Abbey
holding on for the one-run win.
Vasquez led the Crusaders at the dish on Thursday evening, going
3-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored.
USC Aiken had four players collect two hits each with Cody
McMorris, Travis Howard, Aranas and Chris Grandinetti each
collecting two hits.
The 2009 Conference Carolinas Tournament champion, Belmont Abbey
improves to 35-24 on the year with the victory over the Pacers. USC
Aiken drops to 39-18 on the 2009 season with the loss.
Belmont Abbey will next play third-seeded Georgia College &
State, who will be facing elimination as the Bobcats fell 7-5 to
Catawba on Thursday afternoon. The two will tangle at approximately
3 p.m. on Friday, May 15.
USC Aiken will now take on 2009 South Atlantic Conference regular
season champion and fifth-seeded Tusculum in an elimination contest
at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 15.
Boxscore
USCA Head Coach Kenny Thomas – “Pretty
sad performance. Can’t lay a sacrifice bunt down, tried twice
and can’t get it down. We tried to get it down in the 1st,
2nd, and 8th.”
“The fly ball in the outfield haunted us again. One other
game this year that happened. I don’t know why we don’t
catch that ball, guess we lost it in the outfield. Couldn’t
find it or see it.”
“We gave up the ground ball in the infield, threw it away.
Their team made 7 errors against us, but they kept battling, kept
fighting and they outplayed us.”
“Sat there with 2 outs in bottom of 8th, Raborn was at the
plate, and again if we get sacrifice bunt down we wouldn’t be
in this situation. We work on that every day, I don’t
understand it. We work on it every day of the week.”
“We have to execute, have to make outs, I told them before
the tournament. They (Belmont Abbey) just pitched well, they
out-pitched us.”
“It’s hard, Cochcroft pitched well, two runs he
shouldn’t have given up, no excuse, I thought Chad threw
well, he struck the guy out on the next pitch and it would have
still been a tied ball game if we blocked it (past ball). Then he
struck the next guy out on the next pitch.”
“They battled and fought, when you make seven errors and
still win, you must have pitched pretty well. I thought our guys
pitched well too, we just didn’t execute. You can’t
expect our guys to drive the ball out of park every time. You have
to execute, get the runner over to scoring position.”
“The first inning was just ridiculous.”
“It’s been a weird year, and it’s continued to
be weird.”
Message to team – “Obviously it’s a
tough road, no use lying about that. They have two choices, they
can either come out play or lay down.”
“We were tight in the first bit, like we had all this
pressure on us, but heck we were the team to beat. We
shouldn’t have that kind of pressure. But I thought we played
like that early.”
“I just told them, ‘Guys, it’s a tough road,
lets see what your’ made of, lets see how far you can
go.’ “
“I don’t think it was lack of effort, they just
didn’t execute, we work on that stuff every day.”
10 runners left on base – That bothered me a lot,
but I have to give their guy a lot of credit ‘cause he bared
down when he needed to. We tried to do too much at the plate.
Ten’s a lot for us anyhow. When you get into these
tournaments, you have to realize it’s a different ball game,
you have got to execute when you have the opportunity and we just
sure didn’t do it. It’s very obviously frustrating to
lose the game on a ball in the dirt. But that’s just the way
it is.”
“Our guys just tried to go up there and do too much, trying
to do way too much. The winning run got to third on a strike out.
Then he scored on a ball in the dirt. I don’t know how that
happens.”
“When you get into tournaments, you’re not going to
blow people out, you’re going to play close games most of the
time, and that’s the reason execution is so
important.”
Belmont Abbey Head Coach Kermit Smith –
“When you play a team three times and you lose the first two,
it’s hard for anyone. Especially with them being in the Peach
Belt Coference and us being in the Conference Carolina, we had to
climb that mountain. Anytime you play a team three times,
it’s very difficult for any team to sweep another
team.”
“We haven’t won a whole bunch this year when we were
trailing in the 8th inning, I think we’ve won 3, maybe not
even that many.”
“I think if you had told me before the game we would make
seven errors against Aiken, I’d say we’d have a tough
time of it.”
“We’ve only won two games ever in school history in
post season and Michael (Raymond) has been the starting pitcher in
both of those. That was part of the reason we went with him
tonight.”
“The bigger the game, the better he throws. It’s not
cocky, you have to understand Michael and us.”
Playing out of winners bracket – “Depending
on which national poll you look at, we have six of top 30 teams in
this tournament, and I don’t think your game plan gets
easier. We’re playing Georgia College and State tomorrow, and
we’re facing two things – if we get over confident and
we lose because if they lose to us then they go home.”
Belmont Abbey Starting Pitcher Michael Raymond
– “(Assistant) Coach (Chris) Anderson had a game plan
before, and we stuck to it. My arm was bothering me early with the
fast balls and I kept throwing the curve ball and
slider.”
“I knew that if I kept them (Pacer hitters) off balance, and
keep my team in the game, we would have the best shot to win it.
All I had to do, nothing else.”
Confidence wise – “This was a big confidence
booster, it’s been about three weeks since we last played. If
you win this game anytime, against anyone in the regional,
it’s a pretty big confidence booster. I’ll be sorry for
whoever we play tomorrow.”
Baseball
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