AIKEN, S.C. – The Belmont Abbey Crusaders completed an
unprecedented run through the 2009 NCAA Southeast Regional
tournament as they defeated the top-seeded and fifth-ranked USC
Aiken Pacers 11-5 in the championship game on Sunday in Aiken. The
Crusaders will make their first-ever appearance in the NCAA
Division II National Championships after sweeping all four games in
the regional.
The Crusaders advance to the national championships which begin
next Saturday, May 23, as the USA Baseball National Training
Complex in Cary, N.C. The National Championships will be hosted by
Mt. Olive College and the city of Cary. Belmont Abbey (38-24) will
play in the first game of the tournament at 1:00 pm.
But it was the Pacers (42-19) who started Sunday’s regional
final with a run in the first as Ken Raborn doubled in Alex
Franklin. USCA had the chance to add more but for a baserunning
error as Raborn tried to stop between third and home on a single by
Jamie Benjamin only to be caught in a rundown to end the
inning.
The score was 1-0 until the bottom of the third as Belmont Abbey
got to USCA starter Jeremy Smith. Patrick Atwell drew a leadoff
walk and then scored from first on Tyler McKenzie’s RBI
double down the left field line. McKenzie then scored on a Daniel
Kassouf single. Danny Brion then took the next pitch from Smith
over the wall in right center for the lone home run of the game and
gave Belmont Abbey a 4-1 lead.
The Pacers threatened again in the fourth with runners at first
and third with one out, but Sherrer ground into a double play to
end the inning. Another Aiken threat was snuffed out in the fifth
when Atwell made a sliding catch in right field on a dying flare
from Raborn for the third out with a runner on. USCA had the bases
loaded in the sixth with one out but a ground ball that hit a
baserunner was followed by a strikeout that ended the inning.
Belmont Abbey increased their lead to 6-1 in the seventh. Brion
led off with a single followed by a walk to Spencer Sobol. After
both runners moved up a base on a Carlos Vasquez sac bunt, Josh
Frazier sent a high chopper over the infield that brought both
runners in. That was the end of the day for Smith (L, 6-4), who
walked four and struck out four.
Zach Horne started the eighth in relief of Merritt (W, 3-1).
Merritt pitched seven full, scattering eight hits and allowing the
one run and walking five while striking out three.
The lead increased to 11-1 in the bottom of the eighth as Belmont
Abbey scored five more. The Pacers got some hits in the ninth, but
were simply too far back to rally despite scoring four runs.
Brion finished the day 3-for-5 with three runs and three RBIs
while McKenzie was also 3-for-5 with a run and two RBIs. Frazier
also drove in a pair as he went 1-for-4 with a run scored. Kassouf,
named the tournament MVP, was 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs
scored. Four of the Crusaders’ 14 hits went for extra
bases.
Benjamin had three hits in four at-bats to lead USC Aiken, he also
scored twice. Raborn finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run. Gary
Asbill and John Sherrer also had two hits each.
Belmont Abbey becomes the only team to
be the low seed a regional tournament to advance to the National
Championships. The Crusaders will make their first national
championship appearance in school history and face either Mesa
State or Wayne State as they battle for the Central Region
championship later on Sunday.
USC Aiken Head Coach Kenny
Thomas – “We kind of ran ourselves out of the
ball game in the first three innings with three unbelievable base
running mistakes. That was a big key to the game. If we
didn’t make those mistakes early, the game might have been
different. If we had scored some runs early, we might have had a
chance to get ahead.”
“All year long, we haven’t been a team that been has
been successful when we fall behind. When we lose, we lose big.
When we fell behind, it got us out of our run and gun
game.”
“We had a chance to jump out four or five to nothing. If we
did that with this team (Belmont Abbey), we could have gone out and
really put it on that defense.”
“Yes, we were tired. We had to play two ball games yesterday.
But we can’t use that as an excuse. We should be able to play
on emotion if we’re tired. When we got here this morning, I
thought they were ready to play.”
“The real kicker to the thing was Thursday night. We lost
that game after they made seven errors, and we out-hit them. But we
just gave that ball game away Thursday
“I was proud of our guys, just
not how we played today. I thought we would bang it around again
today. I felt if we had gotten those two or three runs in the first
three innings, it would have been different.”
“We’re an aggressive team, we play hard, we run the
bases hard. You can go back through the season, we played about 61
games and you can look and see us getting thrown out at 2nd, 3rd,
and the plate. We were always aggressive.”
“I’m really disappointed with being the bridesmaid
again, we’ve been to the regional five straight seasons. I
doubt any other program in the country can say that.”
“I honestly thought we had a great chance today, but I was
worried about the fatigue. We were just out there 12 hours before
we had to be out there today.”
“I really believed it was our year. Now I have to believe
it’s next year. It’s going to be a hard
summer.”
“Last year I felt like I let the whole city of Aiken down,
this year I feel like I let myself down a little bit, but I am
proud of what they did to come back from where we were in Feruary
to where we are now was a really great season.”
Belmont Abbey Head Coach Kermit Smith –
“Joshua 1:9.”
“We really found a specific way that we are successful on the
field, and we’ve tried to repeat that down the stretch.
It’s been hard through exams and all that to keep up with
practices.”
“ Looking back on it, winning Thursday was very Important. At
the conference, we won five games in 48 hours to win the conference
championship. I really don’t know, I just think it’s
simple that we’re going to do it or not. And when we
don’t we’re not very good.”
"Winning Thursday really helped, I wouldn’t want to do it
other way, but I’m not going to say we
couldn’t.”
“We base everything off of base runners, not home runs or
doubles. We really fight to get on base, and from that point we
know that leads to runs being scored.”
“We had to keep their leadoff guy off base, obviously that is
the heart beat of their team. (Cody) McMorris is. But at the same
time, their next three are as tough as it gets in college baseball.
Alex Franklin, Ken Raborn, and Travis Howard are three legitimate
hitters no matter what level or region.”
“This is obviously the best day of Belmont Abbey baseball.
This is only our second regional championship in any sport. It
might be the biggest thing that’s happened in our athletic
department. The talks with recruiting kids, they came here with a
purpose, to play baseball. Daniel Kassouf came to Belmont Abbey to
help us win a national championship.”
“We came in as a six seed and I promise you, not one talk of
us being the underdog was mentioned. If you’re in the
regional, you’re a good baseball team.”
“I think it means a lot to these guys because we’ve
really worked hard to get here.”
“It’s a really exciting time for our college. The
seniors missed graduation yesterday to be here.”
Southeast Regional MVP, Belmont Abbey First Baseman Daniel
Kassouf – “We just get to keep playing. We are
all just so excited. We knew we could do it, it’s just a
matter of putting it all together.”
NCAA Southeast Regional
All-Tournament Team
C – Ryan Query, Catawba
1b – Daniel Kassouf, Belmont Abbey
2b – Ken Raborn, USC Aiken
3b – Nick Aranas, USC Aiken
SS – Chandler Snell, GCSU
OF – Justin Vasquez, Belmont Abbey
OF – Alex Franklin, USC Aiken
OF – Patrick Atwell, Belmont Abbey
DH – Jared Barkdoll, Francis Marion
P – Justin Fry, USC Aiken
P – Andrew Morton, Belmont Abbey
Tournament Most Outstanding Player
Daniel Kassouf, Belmont Abbey
Baseball
About the PBC
