Box Score JOLIET, Ill. -- The wind was blowing out to left for the first time in the Windy City suburb Thursday, and Campbellsville University used it. With the Tigers hitting two of the three tournament home runs prior to Thursday, they added two more in a 7-3 win over the University of St. Francis in the NAIA Baseball Tournament at Silver Cross Field.
CU advances to play Cumberland University in the double-elimination tournament's championship game Friday.
Brian Chase used the wind to give CU a 1-0 lead in the first when he hit a 1-0 pitch 328 feet down the left field line. The wind carried it the other two feet over the 330-foot marker for his 11th home run of the season.
The second long ball of the day was legit and the nail in the Fighting Saints' coffin. With no outs in the top of the 10th, sophomore Steve Oiler drilled his first career dinger over the left-center field fence for a 395-foot, three-run shot. The blast shattered a 2-2 tie and sparked a five-run inning for the Tigers in the elimination game.
"That was pure coaching. Why else do you think I haven't used him the previous days?" CU head coach Beauford Sanders quipped. "Seriously, I told him before the inning started that he'd be hitting for Luke (Gadow). He's had some big pinch hit performances for us this year and we wanted to reward him with a shot. Even though we had two on, bunt never crossed my mind. I felt we had to bring in these runs swinging."
Following the homer, Logan Smith drove in the other two runs on a double to right-center.Â
St. Francis managed one run in the bottom of the 10th but left the bases loaded when Michael Caleb came in with two outs and the tying run at the plate. He got a ground ball hit to second base for the save and Tiger win.
Following Chase's homer in the first, St. Francis had a runner in scoring position in both the first and third innings with one out. CU senior pitcher Curtis Payne used a ground out and strikeout to get out of both innings and keep USF at bay. The Fighting Saints evened the score, 1-1, in the fifth with a two-out single by Steve Witczak that went just over a leaping Michael Caleb's glove at short to score Tom Whalen.
Rain began to fall as the sixth inning as Payne continued to hold off the Saints with seven strikeouts in the game.
Smith, who led CU with three hits, led off the seventh with a single to center. Richie Rowland doubled to left to regain the lead for the Tigers, 2-1.
USF tied the game in the bottom of the eighth with a two-out RBI single by Tom Serutto. Payne escaped the eighth with a pop up and exited the game with seven hits, seven strike outs and no walks.
Alex Tolmachoff in relief, giving up a one-out double in the ninth by Brent Walters and then a two-out single to put runners on the corners. He escaped the inning with a ground ball back to the mound by Serutto to force extra innings. He went on to record his second win of the season in relief.
Losing pitcher for St. Francis was Corey Schultz (6-1), who recorded his first loss in relief after allowing six earned runs off nine hits over 3 2/3 innings.
Saint Francis finishes its season at 36-16 overall. Entering the tournament, the Saints won 21 of their last 24 games en route to a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship.
Campbellsville (42-21) advances to the championship game of the NAIA Baseball Tournament Opening Round tournament in Joliet, and will face Cumberland University for the fourth time this season. The game was originally scheduled for 7 p.m. CT Thursday, but a rain delay has pushed it back to at least 10 a.m. CT Friday. The Tournament must be completed by midnight Friday, May 21 per NAIA rules.
All entries of this diary, as well as tournament updates and live stats, can be found here
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