CLEVELAND, Miss. – Lee's baseball team will be playing for its first Gulf Southern Conference tournament championship on Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET.
The Flames were declared the winner of Pool B after posting its second straight upset, a 7-0 victory over No. 3-seed West Florida during early action on Monday. Lee then watched as No.3 Montavello (Ala.) knocked off West Georgia in the final game on Monday evening, opening to gate to the championship game.
The Flames still must play their final pool play game on Tuesday at 5:15 p.m. ET. They will battle either Mississippi College or tournament host and GSC regular-season winner Delta State in the championship game.
Junior right-hander Patrick Morrow (5-0) turned in his top pitching performance of the season, working the entire nine innings of shut-out ball against West Florida. He allowed seven hits and walked just one Argonaut hitter. At the plate the Flames exploded for six big runs in the third inning and tacked on a single score in the fourth to put the contest out of reach.
"What a great performance by Morrow," explain Lee head coach Mark Brew. He had great command of his fastball and slider and really kept West Florida off balance. Our defense really stepped up and helped Patrick out with the four double plays. Pat's performance also gives us a really rested bullpen for the remainder of the tourney.Our team is playing with a lot of confidence and having fun right now.
Perhaps the biggest double plays came in the first and second innings. The Argos loaded the bases in the first only to be wiped out by the twin-killing. In the second inning, the Flames turned another double play to cut down another West Florida rally.
Boom! In the bottom of the third with two outs, Lee's bats exploded. Justen Freeman singled and scored on Jordan Howard's team-leading 12th home run of the year. "That was a big two-strike, two-out home run by Jordan. It really moved the momentum into our favor," remarked Brew.
Miguel Pimentel and Peyton Meeker followed with one-base knocks before Spencer Mossburg walked to load the bases. Chase Gadau continued his outstanding tournament hitting performance at the plate, ripping a base-clearing double. Dalton Ney collected a RBI single that scored Gadau.
Matthew Jones and Jacob Silverst had two hits each for the losers. Dylan Mills-Derouen (4-1) was the starting and losing West Florida hurler. He lasted only 2.2 innings. Four other Argos followed Mills-Derouen to the mound.
