LEWISTON, Idaho
– The favorites took a beating during the
second day of the 51st annual
Avista NAIA World Series baseball tournament
at Lewis-Clark State College’s Harris Field
on Saturday as top-seed Azusa Pacific lost
its opener, while Cumberland of Lebanon,
Tenn., won’t be playing in its third title
game in the last four years.
Azusa
Pacific’s debut was spoiled by No. 8 seed
Lindenwood, which scored a huge 14-9 upset
win in the late game on Saturday night. As
one of the top two seeds, Azusa Pacific
received a bye when the 10-team
double-elimination tournament opened on
Friday.
Also on
Saturday, Cumberland, which won the title in
2004 and placed second last year, became the
first team to be eliminated when the No. 4
seeded Bulldogs fell to Houston Baptist
5-2.
The other two
games on Saturday nearly ended in upsets as
well. No. 2 seed Spring Arbor of Michigan
(46-3) used a three-run eighth inning to
take the lead and added two more in the
ninth to defeat 10th-seeded Walsh
University 8-5. No. 6 seed Lee University
needed 12 innings to finally subdue No. 7
seed St. Thomas University 5-4 in the other
loser-out contest.
Azusa Pacific
(50-9) fought back from deficits of 2-0 and
7-2 to take a 9-7 lead in the sixth inning.
Lindenwood (47-18) responded with a solo run
in the seventh and six runs in the eighth to
capture the win. Designated hitter Ryan Kopp
hit a three-run home run in the eighth to
power Lindenwood in its victory, which came
just before midnight Saturday.
APU starter
Scott Hodsdon, who entered the game with a
10-1 record and a 2.73 earned run average,
was touched for eight hits, six runs and
three walks in just five innings of work.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis went 3-for-5 with three RBI
to lead APU Despite being hit around and
allowing 12 hits and four walks, Spring
Arbor’s Brad Hinkle improved to 14-0 and
went the distance in the win over Walsh. Jon
Schaible led Spring Arbor at the plate by
going 5-for-6 with three run scored.
Teammates Jesse Bachman, Matt Coulter and
Brad Baker each went 2-for-5 in the win,
while Jeff Tebau finished the game 3-for-3
and provided an RBI single that allowed two
more runners to score with an error on the
play.
Walsh
(29-29) fell behind early but scored five
runs over the game's middle three innings to
take control. However, Spring Arbor managed
to score the final five runs of the game in
the eighth and ninth innings to come away
with the three-run win.
Cumberland
(48-20-1) never found an answer to HBU
starter Matthew Headley (12-4), who went the
distance and scattered eight hits and two
walks. He also struck out six and gave up
only one earned run. HBU (41-20) also used
three hits and three RBI from Michael
Crabtree in the win.
Cumberland
was led by Jeremy Wilson’s two hits.
Despite
just 12 hits and nine runs in a 12-inning
game, Lee’s win over St. Thomas didn’t come
easy. The game lasted 4-hours and 15 minutes
and took Aaron Simmons’ sacrifice fly to
center with the bases loaded to end it.
Right-field Andrew Shaver's lead-off
ground-rule double set the stage in the
bottom of the 12th inning for Lee (51-14).
Simmons, Andrew Shaver, and Elvis Sosa had
two hits apiece for Lee. Hamzeld Diaz and
Aliercy Nunez both had a hit and an RBI for
Saint Thomas (46-16-1).
The
tournament now takes Sunday off before
resuming action in four games on Monday The
early game has Walsh against Houston Baptist
at 8:30 a.m., followed by Lee and Azusa
Pacific at noon. The winner’s bracket has
Lindenwood facing Bellevue University of
Nebraska (45-14) at 3 p.m., followed by
Spring Arbor (46-3) against Lewis-Clark
State (54-5) at 7 p.m.
