OXFORD, Alabama – The Lee University baseball team rode outstanding pitching and solid hitting into the winner's bracket final of the Gulf South Conference Baseball Championship being played at Choccolocco Park late Saturday night. The Flames, a 9-3 winner over top-seeded Delta State, will face Alabama Huntsville in a contest scheduled for approximately 5:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday afternoon.
Earlier Sunday Shorter and Valdosta State will battle in the first loser's bracket game at 11 a.m. Eastern and in the other loser's bracket game Delta State will seek to stay alive against Montevallo at approximately 2:30.
"Tonight, we got a tremendous pitching effort from (Miguel) Alba and (Sam) Fulton," remarked Lee Coach Mark Brew. Alba pitched 5.2 innings and allowed four hits, three earned runs, walked six and struck out eight. Fulton entered for 3.1 innings and surrendered just two hits, striking out six and allowing no free passes.
"Delta State has a great line up and I thought we pitched them as well as we have anyone all year," Brew added. "Our defense once again was solid and our offense continued to click in big situations like the (Brandon) Daniels two run homer and (Isaac) Quinones two-out, two-RBI swing late in the game. (Justen) Freeman had a solid night at the plate as well."
The Flames jumped on top 1-0 in the first inning. Cam Suto walked and scored on the first of two RBI doubles by Freeman. The Statesmen tied the game in the third inning when Carson Flowers tripled and scored on a sacrifice bunt by Chad Ragland.
Lee went on top for good when they sent 10 batters to the plate in the fourth inning and scored four runs to lead 5-1. Jared Demkowicz and Quinones singled, and Demkowicz scored when Matthew Batts was safe on a fielder's choice. Freeman blasted another gap to the fence in left-center that plated Batts and Jake Edwards followed with a ringing triple that pushed Freeman across the plate. Thomas Zazzaro, who had two hits in the contest, singled home Edwards with the final run of the frame.
The Statesmen cut the lead to 5-3 in the sixth inning. Alba experienced control problems and gave up a couple of walks plus a one-base hit to load the bases. Kade Does picked up two RBI with a bloop single to left that brought home two runs and forced a frustrated Alba out of the game.
Fulton took charge and proceeded to end the rally with a big strikeout. In fact, he struck out six of the 11 batters he faced, picking up his fifth save of the year while Alba improved his record to 5-2 with the victory.
The Flames put to rest any hopes of a Delta State comeback in the bottom of the sixth inning when Edwards walked, and Daniels ripped his long two-run homer over the right-field fence to push the lead to 7-3. Two more runs in the eighth put icing on the victory cake. Zazzaro and Daniels walked. Standifer had an infield hit to load the bases and Quinones had a solid one-base knock to collect two RBI.
The win improved the Flames to 29-22 overall and Delta State dropped to 31-14. "We've got another tough test against a very hot UAH team and we are excited for that opportunity," said Coach Brew in closing.
