UNCW Wins CAA Baseball Title
HARRISONBURG, Va. (May 26, 2012) - Top-seeded UNCW erased an
early six-run deficit and scored twice in the ninth to earn a 10-8 victory over
#3 Delaware and capture the Virginia 529 CAA Baseball Championship on Saturday evening
at Veterans Memorial Park.
It was the third CAA championship, but first since 2006, for
the Seahawks (38-21), who garnered the CAA's automatic bid to next week's NCAA
Baseball Championship. Delaware, which beat UNCW 11-9 earlier on Saturday to
force the deciding game, saw its season come to an end with a 31-27 mark.
With the score tied 8-8 in the ninth, UNCW's Hunter Ridge
doubled down the right-field line and scored on a single by Thomas Pope. Drew
Farber followed with a sacrifice bunt and Pope was able to advance to third on
an errant throw. A Jake Koenig sacrifice fly plated Pope to make it 10-8.
Left-hander Kelly Secrest (5-2), who picked up the win with
2.1 innings of no-hit relief, retired the Blue Hens in order in the ninth to
secure the victory. The Seahawks also got an excellent relief effort from
sophomore Justin Livengood, who had thrown only four innings all season but
contributed 2.1 shutout frames in the title game.
Delaware sent 11 men to the plate in the bottom of the first
and jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead. DJ Long and Nick Ferdinand opened the
contest with back-to-back homers to left. Jimmy Yezzo singled, Alex Maruri
doubled and a single by Joe Giacchino brought them both in for a 4-0 Hens'
advantage. UD tacked on its final run of the inning when Ty Warrington's base
hit brought home Giacchino.
The Hens added another run in the second. Yezzo, who set a
CAA Tournament record for hits with 15, had a leadoff double and scored on a
double by Tyler Powell.
UNCW cut the deficit in half in the third. Matt Campbell
singled and Tyler Molinaro followed with a two-run homer to right. Andrew Cain
and Ridge had consecutive singles and Pope's double brought home Cain to make
it 6-3.
The Seahawks moved ahead in the fourth. Singles by Koenig
and Corey Dick opened the inning and Michael Bass reached on an error that
scored Koenig. Campbell's double plated Dick and a sacrifice fly by Molinaro
brought Bass across to tie the contest at 6-6. A two-run homer to left by Cain
gave UNCW its first lead of the game at 8-6.
Delaware pulled back even again in the bottom of the fifth.
EJ Stoltzfus drew a leadoff walk, advanced on a sacrifice bunt and a Ty
Warrington single before scoring on a balk. Warrington later came across on
Long's RBI single to tie the contest at 8-8.
UNCW had five players with multiple hits in the contest.
Pope was 3-for-4 with two RBI's and Dick was also 3-for-4 and scored once.
Long finished 4-for-5 with a pair of RBI's for Delaware,
while Yezzo and Warrington were each 2-for-5.
Yezzo was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player
after batting .517 (15-29) in the tournament with 10 runs and 11 RBI's. He was
joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Long, Maruri and pitcher Eric
Young.
Making the squad from UNCW were Campbell, Pope, Molinaro and
starting pitchers Mat Batts and Tyler McSwain. Rounding out the team were VCU's
Brent Mikionis, Towson's Zach Fisher and George Mason's Zack Helgeson.