2004 Avista NAIA Baseball World Series
Press Release

Saturday, May 29 - Game 3
#5 Cumberland (Tenn) (55-21) def. #4 Bellevue (Neb.) (54-19), 9-7

LEWISTON, Idaho – Mike Minkel’s three-run double highlights a eight-run seventh inning to help No. 5 seed Cumberland (Tenn.) rally past No. 4 seed Bellevue (Neb.) 9-7 to conclude the opening round of the 48^th annual Avista NAIA World Series at Lewis-Clark State College’s Harris Field on Saturday morning.

Both teams had to wait a day to jump into action because rain delays totaling five hours pushed the game from Friday to Saturday.

Bellevue (54-19) certainly had its way early with two runs in the first and five more in the fifth for a 7-1 lead.

But Cumberland (55-21) fought back with the big inning, thanks to Bellevue’s pitching staff having some problems finding the strike zone. Cumberland took advantage of five walks, a hit batter and three hits in the seventh for its big inning as it sent 13 hitters to the plate.

A walk, single and hit batter loaded the bases to start the Cumberland seventh. That marked the end for Bellevue starter Ron Madej. Reliever Jason Ashcroft then issued a walk to bring in a run and a ground out by Donnie Burkhalter made it 7-3. Another hit batter reloaded the bases and Craig Moreland followed with a two-run double. A walk reloaded the bases, but new reliever Luke Faxon recorded a strikeout for the second out. But Derek Depew followed with a bases-loaded walk to make it 7-6 and Minkel followed with his three-run double down the right-field line.

Minkel finished with two hits and three RBI to pace Cumberland, while Moreland had two hits, two RBI and two runs scored.

Jason Cvejdlik had a huge game for Bellevue with a pair of home runs. He gave Bellevue its 2-0 lead with a two-run shot in the first inning and then a three-run blast in the fifth following run-scoring singles by Tijl VanDerWege and Rob Wirth. A.J. Stosich and Wirth collected three hits apiece for Bellevue, which out-hit Cumberland 10-8 in the game. The problem for Bellevue is all 10 hits came from the first four batters in the order as VanDerWege and Cvejdlik added two hits apiece.

Josh Underhill (6-3) pitched three innings of one-hit relief to pick up the win, while Ashcroft (10-2) took the loss, allowing four runs, one hit, two walks and a hit batter in just one-third of an inning.

Bellevue returns to action Sunday in loser-out play as the Bruins will face Concordia (Ore.) (36-21) at 2 p.m. Cumberland is off until Monday when it plays at 3 p.m. against the winner of Saturday night’s contest between William Penn (Iowa) (48-13) and Oklahoma City (70-5).