Baseball Wins Kingsport Bracket in Walk-Off Fashion to Advance to Seventh World Series

KINGSPORT, Tenn.- The baseball team played for a trip to the Avista NAIA Baseball World Series on Wednesday. Tennessee Wesleyan had won their first two games in the 2024 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round Kingsport Bracket, moving them into the championship game and making it where there opponent had to beat them twice. The second-seeded Bulldogs did not learn of their opponent until that afternoon, when the third seed Columbia College Cougars won the final game of the loser's portion of the bracket. TWU faced the Cougars in their opening game of the Kingsport Bracket.

Columbia took the first lead of the game in the first inning. TWU got on the board in the third inning. 

Dante Leach opened the inning with a double and was joined on base by Braxton Turner who got on base with a hit by pitch. A single by Jack Stevens brought Leach home from second to give the team a 1-0 lead and moved Turner to second. Turner scored on a Marco Martinez single to tie the game 2-2. A single by Cayle Webster loaded the bases. Kruise Newman took Stevens off a base with his single while a walk by Daniel Stewart brought Martinez around the bases to give the Bulldogs a 4-0 lead at the end of the third inning.

The lead did not stay with Tennessee Wesleyan though as Columbia scored six runs over the next few innings to take an 8-4 lead after the seventh inning, making the idea of the second game a possibility.

The Bulldogs had another idea in mind. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Webster became a base runner with a single. Newman followed with a single to right field that Webster reached the other corner on. A single by Stewart lessened the deficit as Webster scored. The second out of the inning was recorded as Carson Ford came to the plate. Ford kept the inning alive with a double that scored both Newman and courtesy runner Hagen Escoto, making the score 8-7 as the eighth inning ended.

The game went into the bottom of the ninth inning with TWU still trailing by one run. The outlook started to become bleak for the Bulldogs as the first two batter recorded two outs. Then, Webster hit a single. Newman followed with a walk to move Webster into scoring position on second base. Stewart hit a single that gave Webster the space to score to tie the game 8-8, and left Kruise standing on third. Then, this happened:

Leach hit a ball the second basemen was able to snag, but the throw was off on the force out, making Leach safe at first and giving the Bulldogs a walk-off win as Newman ran across home plate to make the score 9-8, completing the comeback win and starting the dogpile celebration.

The win, the 40th win of the season for the Bulldogs, sends the team to Lewiston, Idaho where they will play in the Avista NAIA Baseball World Series for the seventh time, the first time since 2022. The World Series is set to start on Friday, May 24.