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Championship Central |
Bracket
OZARK, Missouri – The 2019 Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Baseball Championship Tournament closed out its four-game slate in the same thrilling fashion it began the day on Thursday at U.S. Baseball Park in Ozark, Missouri. Top-seeded Quincy University survived in the nightcap, although fellow GLVC tri-champions Maryville University and Missouri S&T suffered opening-round setbacks.
Thursday’s action opened with an impressive outing by No. 4 seed University of Illinois Springfield, which moved No. 5 Drury University to the elimination bracket following an 11-2 result. The Prairie Stars set the tone early with a two-out, seven-run rally in the bottom of the second inning, while starter Justin Revels threw eight innings with 10 strikeouts, while allowing just six hits, one walk and two runs.
No. 6 seed University of Southern Indiana saw designated hitter Manny Lopez hit a three-run blast in the eighth inning and right-hander Jacob Bowles strike out eight to lead the Screaming Eagles to a 5-4 victory over three-seed Missouri S&T.
In the third game, No. 7 Bellarmine University impressed with a 12-4 decision over No. 2 Maryville. Alex Phillips singled on the first pitch of the game and Matt Higgins responded with a two-run homer on the very next pitch that would help the Knights score two of their six runs over the first two innings. Eddie Mathis went 6.2 innings and struck out eight batters to improve to 9-2 on the year.
In the nightcap, top-seeded and two-time defending GLVC Champions Quincy jumped out to a 4-0 lead through four innings, but let No. 8 seed Lewis University back into the game in the seventh when the Flyers, who got on the board with a run in the fifth, tied the game at 4-4 with three runs before the stretch. Quincy’s Michael Nielsen, who hit a two-run homer in the third inning, delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to scoring the winning run and give the Hawks the 5-4 victory.
Friday’s first pitch at 9 a.m. CT features No. 2 Maryville and No. 3 Missouri S&T in the elimination bracket, followed by No. 5 Drury and No. 8 Lewis at 12:30 p.m. In the championship bracket, No. 6 Southern Indiana and No. 7 Bellarmine will do battle at 4 p.m., followed by No. 1 Quincy and No. 4 Illinois Springfield in the 7:30 p.m. nightcap.
Each GLVC Championship Tournament contest will be streamed live on the GLVC Sports Network. Coverage can be seen by logging on to the GLVCSN’s official website,
GLVCSN.com, or on the GLVCSN iOS/Android mobile apps, as well as on the Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV OTT platforms. Live stats can be found on the official Championship page at
GLVCsports.com/2019baseball. Updates will also be included on the GLVC's official Twitter accounts (@
GLVCsports and @GLVCSN) with the hashtags, #GLVCbase, and #GLVCchamps.