No. 6 Baseball Survives Against #1 Southeastern; Advances to Avista World Series Semifinals

LEWISTON, Idaho- The baseball team played an elimination game at the Avista NAIA Baseball World Series on Tuesday. The win or go home game came against the No. 1 seed in the World Series, the Southeastern University Fire. 

The first three innings of the game saw the teams exchange runs with each other, making the game tied 2-2 after the third inning. The sixth seeded Bulldogs scored their first run of the game in the bottom of the second. 

Kruise Newman scored the first run of the game for the Bulldogs after hitting a triple to get on base in the bottom of th second. Daniel Stewart hit a ground out that allowed Newman to score to tie the score 1-1. In the third inning, Marco Martinez got on first with a walk and scored from the base on Evan Magill's double to left-center field, tying the score 2-2.

Three consecutive innings of two-run innings helped TWU take a lead. 

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Jack Stevens and Martinez were the two runs for the Bulldogs. After a single to the shortstop, Steven found himself on third after a fielder's choice on Martinez's at-bat resulted in a throwing error. Martinez was on second after the error. Magill got on base with a walk and on the fourth pitch to complete the walk sequence, the pitch was thrown of target by the pitcher and Stevens beat the scramble to home plate to make the score 3-2 in favor of Tennessee Wesleyan while Martinez moved to third. A fielding error on Cayle Webster's sacrifice bunt brought Martinez home from third to move the lead to 4-2 after the fifth inning.

In the sixth inning, Dante Leach and Braxton Turner were the runs for Bulldogs. Leach and Turner hit back-to-back singles to take over the first two bases. With the bases loaded after a Stevens' hit by pitch, Magill hit a single through the hole on the left side that allowed both Leach and Turner to score, extending the lead to 6-2. The top of the seventh saw Southeastern score four runs to put the game in its third tie. 

Runs scored by Hagen Escoto and Carson Ford gave TWU their third consecutive inning of two runs and the lead. Stewart started the inning with a single and was replaced by courtesy runner Escoto. Carson Ford came in to pinch hit and earned a walk to put runners on first and second. Leach loaded the bases with a single and Stevens emptied two of the bases with a single as Escoto and Ford both score on the hit, giving the team a 8-6 lead as the hit eventually turned into the game-winning hit. 

Three outs in the top of the eighth, including a double play, and in the top of the ninth helped the Bulldogs win the game by a final score of 8-6, keeping them alive in the World Series.

Magill led the offense with three RBIs. Gage Vailes had four strikeouts in 6.1 innings of work. Julian Berinti got the pitching win while Jake Sergent was credited with a save.

Tennessee Wesleyan (42-17) moves in the semifinal round of the Avista NAIA World Series on Wednesday. The team will play the winner of No. 2 Georgia Gwinnett College/No. 5 Reinhardt University on Wednesday in a win or go home game at 9:35 p.m., ET. The live stream of the game can be seen on ESPN3.