OKLAHOMA, City — The Tigers won't have much time to celebrate their thrilling 3-2 win over Mayville State in their opening game of the Opening Round because today at 3:30 ET the Tigers get the bracket's No. 1 seed and the NAIA's No. 1 ranked team — Oklahoma City University.
OCU reached the finals of the winner's bracket too by pounding five home runs and defeating a team from Kansas — Friends University — 10-5.
The Stars trailed 4-0 before scoring 10 unanswered to take down Friends.
Mayville State and the College of Idaho meet today at noon ET in an elimination game.
Campbellsville (34-19) vs. Oklahoma City (46-8)
The Tigers, winners of three consecutive Mid-South Conference regular season titles, look to continue their 17 regional tournaments (including opening rounds) when they take to the diamond against the formidable Stars. With yesterday's win, Campbellsville has been in the Opening Round finals in seven of its last nine seasons.
Leading CU this year is
Clay Valenzuela-Reece's .333 batting average. Including Valenzuela-Reece, six of the Tigers main nine position players are hitting above .300, while the other three are just a few percentage points under the .300 mark. The power bats in the lineup come from
Romello Carbuccia (30 RBI) and
Brett Hamilton (38 RBI) who have launched six homers apiece, and have driven in a combined 68 runs.
Yesterday a different set of heroes emerged as Carbuccia's single in the top of the ninth sent Campbellsville past Mayville State 3-2 in a come-from-behind thriller.
Trailing 2-1 with one out in their last at-bat, the Tigers used a double by
Brett Hamilton that the left fielder lost in the sun. Hamilton raced on the base paths and was standing on second when the ball hit the ground.
Carlos Garmendia singled to put runners on the corners and that's when Carbuccia sent a soft fly to center that found a clear spot between three Mayville fielders. Hamilton scored easily and
Jose Castro, pinch running for Garmendia, legged it home when a relay throw went into Campbellsville's dugout.
The pitching staff has been solid the last month of the regular season, but did hit have a hiccup in the MSC Tournament when they issued 31 walks in four tourney games.
First-Team All-MSC performer
Nick Przybylek, who will be on the mound as today's starter, has an 8-3 record and 3.38 ERA.
Indalecio Romo, who went seven scoreless innings yesterday, is at 4-2 and a 2.44 ERA. CU also has
DJ Wilson,
Jared Welander,
Malik Evans and
Kirby Broadbent who have seen significant action.
The Stars are No. 1 in the nation in two offensive categories — doubles (164) and slugging percentage (.612), scoring 482 runs against their opponents' 220.
OCU has 82 home runs on the season compared to Campbellsville's 31.
Oklahoma City has three players batting above .400 in Lane Milligan (.420), Jared Baker (.409) and Joe Lytle (.403). Five other players are hitting .318 or better.
Matt Young, who has a 9-2 record, pitched yesterday. But there are plenty of other live arms on the Stars' staff with Craig Knoche (8-0), Roberto Delgado (9-2) and Mark Simon (9-1).
In addition to coverage of the NAIA Baseball Opening Round, CU Sports Information Assistant, and Tiger travel companion, Richard RoBards, will keep fans updated with periodic behind-the-scenes features on www.campbellsvilletigers.com and photo galleries on Facebook at Campbellsville Tigers. You can also follow the Tiger Baseball on Twitter at @CTigersBaseball and @CvilleTigers.
