Diamond 'Dogs Advance To A-Sun Baseball Championship Game With 6-3 Win Over #3 Belmont
May 24, 2008 | Baseball
DELAND, Fla. – Gardner-Webb bounced back with opportunistic
offense Saturday afternoon, knocking out #3 seed Belmont, 6-3, to
advance to the 2008 A-Sun Baseball Championship Game.
GWU (29-29) will battle top seed Lipscomb (31-28) on Sunday at 1 pm
ET for the league's automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Baseball
Tournament.
Gardner-Webb scored one run in six different innings in Saturday's
elimination game, taking a 1-0 lead in the first, rallying to tie
the game, 2-2, in the third, going in front 3-2 in the fourth and
building some cushion with runs in the sixth, seventh and
eighth.
Ty Boyles went 2-for-4 with a pair of steals and two RBI to pace
Gardner-Webb's offense, which was held to just seven hits. GWU
scored its first three runs on plays without hits, using three
sacrifice flies and an RBI groundout to do the damage.
Justin Loyd went 2-for-2 with a pair of RBI for Gardner-Webb, which
swiped six more bases in the game – setting a new tournament
record with 18 steals for the event. GWU now has a school-record
120 stolen bases on the season, and Brock Miller (1-for-3, run)
became the single-season record holder individually with a pair of
steals, giving him 32 on the year.
Jonathon Ban (4-3) got the win, bouncing back on short rest after
starting against the Bruins in a no decision Wednesday. The
Marietta, Ga., junior went 6.0 complete, scattering six hits and
allowing three earned runs (two strikeouts). Freshman Kyle Paeplow
(Asheville, N.C.) came on to work the final three innings,
scattering three hits in a scoreless effort for the save.
Belmont had nine hits, with slugger Derek Wiley going 3-for-4 with
a double and a long solo home run in the sixth inning. No other
Bruin had more than one hit on the day. Eric Diaz (1-3) took the
loss in relief, negating 5.0 solid innings of work by starter Brian
Kelley.
