LEWISTON, Idaho – Jose Cuevas pounded the first offering he saw in the bottom of the ninth inning over the left-field fence and advanced No. 4 Lee (Tenn.) (50-11) past No. 5 Lubbock Christian (Texas) (46-15) with a 7-6 victory in Game 3 of the Avista-NAIA World Series from Harris Field. Cuevas’ homer came just minutes after Lubbock Christian’s Rafael Thomas sent one over the fence to tie the game at 6-6 with two outs in the top of the ninth inning. The win for Lee avenged its worst World Series loss, which occurred last year at the hands of Lubbock Christian, 11-0.

The Flames will now play the winner of No. 9 Point Loma Nazarene (Calif.) and No. 1 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) on Monday at 7 p.m. PDT. Dropping to the double-elimination losers’ bracket, Lubbock Christian will face No. 8 Belhaven (Miss.) on Saturday at 8:30 a.m.

The bomb for Cuevas was his ninth and wrapped up a 3-for-5 day. It was his third homer in his last six games overall. The offensive output also added to his hot hitting of 11 hits in his last six games.

“He (pitcher Hunter Scott) got me on my last at-bat so I was sitting on a slider,” said Cuevas. “I hit it pretty hard and I yanked it out. I was thinking that we got to score runs and do it now.”

The ninth-inning drama followed some exciting offense early before pitching highlighted the middle innings.

Lee jumped on the board first with a single run in the first inning. Tanner Moore scored on a sacrifice fly by Junior Rodriguez. Moore reached on the first of his three doubles in the game.

Lubbock answered with a two-run, second inning thanks to consecutive doubles by Dan Neumann and J.J. Muse. That 2-1 lead was short-lived for Lubbock as Lee plated single runs in the second and third frames to take a 3-2 advantage.

One half-inning later, the Chaps broke open for three runs and grabbed a 5-3 edge. Eight batters were sent to the dish as all four hits were singles and all the runs were scored after two outs.

Keeping with the theme of a seesaw-battle, Lee tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the fifth inning with run-producing doubles by Moore and Michael Brown. Just one inning later, Lee went on top 6-5 on a fielder’s choice by J.J. Costantino.

Both teams went scoreless in the seventh and eighth innings. At one point, Lee pitchers Matthew Gilson and Aaron Everett retired nine straight Chaps.

Everett notched the win improving to 7-6 on the season. In relief of starter Matthew Gilson, Everett went 2 1/3 innings, giving up one earned run on two hits. He struck out two batters and allowed no walks.

Moore and Cuevas led the Flames with three hits apiece. Moore added two RBIs and two runs scored.

The loss went to Hunter Scott, the third pitcher for Lubbock Christian. He tossed 2 2/3 innings, giving up the home run to Cuevas. Starter Paul Gonzalez entered the game needing nine strikeouts to break the school’s single-season strikeout record. In five innings, he fanned just one batter. He allowed five runs, four earned, on 10 hits. He got a no-decision, which snapped a five-game winning streak.

Four Chaps rapped two hits each, including a 2-for-5 effort from Thomas. He added two RBIs and one run scored. Pinchrunner Brett Kazmierski scored two runs for the Chaps.

There were six lead changes as no team led by more than two runs.

GAME NOTES: Lee’s Tanner Moore tied a National Championship record (includes Opening Round and World Series) with three doubles – the last player to do so was Darren Riddle in 1990… Since 2003, the No. 4 seed improves to 3-5 in the Opening Game of the World Series… After zero home runs through the day’s first two games, there were two home runs hit within a span of 10 pitches… Lee improves to 9-8 in the World Series, including a 3-2 record in the Opening Game of the Series… Lubbock Christian fell to 19-15 all-time in the World Series, including a 4-5 mark in the Opening Game… The loss for the defending national champs, Lubbock Christian, marks the first time since 1980 that a team lost its first game the following year after winning the title… Lee has had quite an interesting 24-hour period; due to weather-related travel problems, the team had to split up in three different groups flying from Cleveland, Tenn., yesterday. Two groups got re-routed to Spokane, Wash., last night while a third unit flew to Seattle and drove the remaining five hours before arriving in Lewiston after midnight. No members from the team were able to make the World Series Opening Banquet last night… Ranked second in the NAIA in total doubles with 162, Lee added five in tonight’s game.