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Championship Central
OZARK, Mo. – Day two of the 2018 Great Lakes Valley Conference Baseball Championship Tournament was highlighted by upsets once again, this time in three of the four games, at U.S. Baseball Park in Ozark, Missouri.
Things started off with back-to-back eliminations of the divisional top seeds, as the No. 2 East seed Bellarmine sent home the No. 1 West seed Drury, 5-2, followed by No. 3 East Southern Indiana’s dismissal of fourth-ranked and No. 1 East Illinois Springfield, 11-2. Both the Knights and Screaming Eagles came back from early 2-0 deficits to secure victory.
After allowing a pair of runs in the second inning, Bellarmine answered the Panthers in the fourth with a two-run homer by Jacob Mulcahy before Brady Pfaadt sent the eventual game-winning run across the plate on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice in the seventh frame. The Knights proceeded to add a pair of insurance runs in the eighth to seal the win.
USI used a five-run third inning to go up 5-2, and added six more scores over the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings to cushion its lead for the convincing win over the Prairie Stars. GLVC Freshman of the Year Bryce Krizan scored three runs for the Eagles and was 2-for-5 at the plate, while Player of the Year Drake McNamara went 2-for-3 and scored a trio of runs himself. Nick Gobert was only credited with one hit in the contest, but a big one it was for two of his game-high three RBI, as he simultaneously drove in the tying run and eventual game-winner with his double bagger in the third to kick off that five-run rally.
No. 4E UIndy turned in its second-straight upset this tournament in the third game of the day, defeating #3W Maryville, 7-4, to advance in the winners’ bracket for the third time in six years. The first time (2012) the Greyhounds did it they were the top seed, while the second time (2016) they were the 2-seed; however, both times UIndy went on to win the tournament title.
Friday’s nightcap nearly burned the midnight oil as the back-and-forth marathon between No. 2 West Quincy and No. 4 West Missouri S&T lasted three hours and 38 minutes. The Hawks remained in the winners’ bracket with an 11-9 victory over the Miners. The two teams combined for 20 runs over 23 hits with five total errors, having used nine pitchers in the contest. In the end, it was J.C. DeMuri’s solo home run in the eighth inning that gave Quincy the lead back, 10-9, which it then extended with an insurance run in the ninth for the final tally.
The first two contests on Saturday will again be elimination games, as Bellarmine and Maryville will battle at 9 a.m. CT, followed by Southern Indiana and Missouri S&T at 12:30 p.m. The winner of the USI-S&T contest will turn around immediately to face UIndy at 4 p.m., and then the winner of BU-MU will compete against Quincy at 7:30 p.m.
Streaming on the GLVC Sports Network will continue for all games at
GLVCSN.com, on the iOS/Android mobile apps, or on the GLVCSN iOS/Android mobile apps, as well as on the Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV OTT platforms. A replay of all games played on Thursday can be found on every platform by selecting the “On Demand” tab and searching for the stream.
Visit the championship homepage at
GLVCsports.com/2018baseball and follow the @
GLVCsports Twitter account for more information and other details