CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Friday, April 12, 2019 may forever be remembered as "The
Tyler Deason Day" by the Campbellsville Univeristy baseball program as the Tigers found a way to win both games of the doubleheader against Cumberland University.
Deason, a senior from Campbell, Calif., threw a complete game shutout in the game one 5-0 win over the Phoenix and drove in three runs to win the game in the bottom of the seven in game two's 3-2 win. Campbellsville was down to their final strike down 2-0 in the seventh of game two before they loaded the bases for Deason, who singled to right.
Deason's nine-inning performance on the mound in game one was extremely efficient as he only threw 101 pitches, allowing six hits and not walking a batter while striking out eight Phoenix hitters.
The seventh inning of game two started after one out for the Tigers after
Tommy Sepulveda singled up the middle to allow the tying run to come to the plate. It got to
Jack Bauer with two outs as the junior got down in the count 0-2 before singling on a 1-2 pitch to right field, keeping the inning alive.
That spun the order to the top as
Adbiel Morales worked the count to eventually draw a walk to get the go-ahead run on first after
Lane Kashiwamura entered as the courtesy runner. That brought Deason to the plate as he smacked the ball to right, to easily score Bauer from second to tie the game. The ball was bobbled in right, allowing third base coach
Randy LeBleu to wave Kashiwamura around third as the relay throw went off target allowing Kashiwamura to score the winning run.
That seventh inning was where a lot of the action came from on the day as runs were only score in three different half innings on the day. Cumberland took their 2-0 lead in game two in the fifth inning after a lead off walk followed by a double from Jacob Herrera and a single from Eddie McDaniels gave the Phoenix their only runs of the day.
In game one, the Tigers five runs came all in one inning with not a log of hard contact as they punched six hits into the outfield to score their five runs.
Bryson Wallet,
Tony Fonzo,
Marco Murillo, Sepulveda,
Cale Thompson and Deason all had the hits as the final four drove in the six runs.
Anthony Arias was the starting pitcher in the second game of the day as he threw a complete game giving up those two runs on five hits with two walks and four strikeouts. The doubleheader had the rare feat of all four staring pitchers throwing complete games as Thomas Galart in game one and Ryan Hill in game two each took losses with Galart going eight innings and Hill pitching 6.2 innings.
The Tigers will hope to ride this wave of momentum into another busy week as they'll start it on Tuesday with a doubleheader against Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tenn. before getting back to conference action on the road against Lindsey Wilson College for a three-game series next weekend.