Box Score Strong hitting and good pitching were the ingredients for success Campbellsville University head coach Beauford Sanders gave his Tiger baseball team Monday. The recipe worked with little error Tuesday, as CU shutout host-team University of St. Francis, 3-0, in the NAIA Baseball Tournament Opening Round at Silver Cross Field in Joliet, Ill.

Senior pitcher Eric Mattos (10-2) threw his second consecutive complete game for the shutout win, while CU collected 10 hits of previously undefeated USF pitcher Matt Huck (6-1).

"With Eric's pitching effort today, I think we could have beat anybody on our schedule this year. He really did a fine job," Sanders said. "The last third of this season he has really come to the forefront as far as durability, getting ahead in the count and, well, just pitching."

After observing the first game of the day Tuesday with wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour, Sanders challenged his players to hit line drives. That's exactly what Alex Ponich did when he stepped up to the plate and lined a first-pitch single to start the game for CU.
 

The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the second after Richie Rowland and Luke Gadow led off the inning with back-to-back line-drive singles. Zach Townsend drove in Rowland's courtesy runner, Tyler Craig, with a one-out single to right and Jameel Ziadeh scored Gadow with a hit up the middle.

"We did a great job hitting the ball on the line," Sanders said of his team, which had five hits after two innings. "I thought we got away from that after about the fourth and tried to lift the ball too much."

With the cushion, Mattos settled in on the mound. Through the first six innings he allowed three base runners off a second-inning hit by Ruge, a third-inning walk by Serruto and a Craig Edwards error at third base in the fifth.

 

Eric Mattos (10-2) is one win from tying the CU record for single-season wins

Rowland, who lined a pitch onto the patio in deep right field foul territory during the middle of the game, turned on another pitch in the eighth, with a line-drive home run to right. The 345-foot bomb, hit into the wind, was the Santa Rosa, Calif., junior's 10^th home run of the season. It was the first home run hit in the five-team tournament and tied Brian Chase for the CU team lead in 2010.

Mattos allowed a hit in the eighth, but Michael Caleb kept the shutout with a web gem of a play from shortstop. With two outs, Caleb robbed a two-out hit up the middle with a diving stop behind second base to retire the Fighting Saints. The San Jose, Calif., native allowed two more hits in the ninth before ending the game with his sixth strikeout of the game.

Campbellsville (41-20) will return to action Wednesday at 3 p.m. CT against the winner of Tuesday' nights game between No. 4-seed Robert Morris University and No.-1 seed Cumberland University. St. Francis (34-15) will play Mayville State University (29-22) in an elimination game Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. CT.

"If it's Robert Morris, I know they're a very confident team that's able to beat anyone in this tournament," Sanders said. "And if it's Cumberland, obviously nobody here has the power that they do. If we can keep them out of the big innings, we have a chance to beat them. We're not going to be hitting any three- or four-run home runs and we can't let them do that."

CU lefty Jared Lunardi of Santa Clara, Calif., will get the start Wednesday. The game will be broadcast live via Cumberland University radio. Click here to listen.

All entries of this diary, as well as tournament updates and live stats, can be found here

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