May 28, 2011

Contact: Amanda Dahl, NAIA Manager of Sports Information & Media Services, adahl@naia.org

LEWISTON, Idaho - Top-seeded Embry-Riddle (Fla.) prevailed against No. 9 Concordia (Cailf.), 9-3, in its opening game of the Avista-NAIA World Series at Harris Field Saturday. The Eagles (51-9) move on to face fourth-seeded LSU Shreveport (La.) in winners bracket action on May 30 at 3 p.m. PDT. Concordia (39-19) drops down into the losers bracket for a must-win game against Oklahoma Baptist on May 30 at 8:30 a.m.

Eagle ace Tucker Jensen improved to 14-1 on the mound, throwing 7 2/3 innings. The senior allowed three runs to score, a pair of which were earned, on seven hits. He struck out three and issued just one walk. Sophomore Robbie Ratliff entered with two outs in the eighth inning and held Concordia's bats quiet for the final four outs of the contest.

Concordia sophomore Sam Lindsey (2-2) was charged with the loss. Lindsey entered in the bottom of the sixth inning for starter Blake Harrison and was touched for four earned runs on two Embry-Riddle hits. Harrison surrendered three earned runs on five hits and struck out three. Jacob McBride tossed 1 2/3 innings to close out the game.

After two scoreless innings, Concordia struck with a pair of runs in the top of the third. Robbie Knowles opened the frame with a single to short. Edgar Guillen laid down the bunt to move Knowles up to second, but Knowles was able to speed around to third on third baseman Steve Sabins' wild throw to first. Leadoff man Matt Ivanoff connected for the run-scoring hit with a ground out to score Knowles. The second run came off of the bat of Kyle Konicek with a triple to center to bring in Guillen for the 2-0 lead.

The Eagles went up 3-0 in the top of the fourth on senior Ryan Sheeks' long ball to left field for his fourth home run of the season. He proved to be the last Concordia run to score as Embry-Riddle went on to send at least one runner across home plate in each of the next five innings.

Ben Kline led off Embry-Riddle's fourth inning with a double deep to left field. A balk by Harrison sent Kline to third before rookie Keaton Stroud stepped in and belted a two-run home run to right field to put the game at 3-2. Embry-Riddle tacked on a single run in both the fifth and sixth frames to hold a 4-3 edge. The Eagles erupted for four runs following the seventh-inning stretch on five hits and a Concordia throwing error. They added their final run in the eighth for a final tally of 9-3.

All but one Embry-Riddle batter collected at least one hit and half of them registered two hits. Six Eagles were credited with at least one RBI, with Aaron Glaum and Stroud driving in a pair.

Concordia was led by senior John Hill's 2-for-4 batting effort and Konicek connected on two of five trips to the batters box.