St. Thomas Wins 2012 Baseball Tournament Title
FT. MYERS, Fla. - The third-seeded St. Thomas Bobcats finally broke through in The Sun Conference Baseball Tournament title game after losing two straight in 2010 and 2011. STU downed SCAD Savannah 4-3 in Friday's first game, eliminating the Bees from contention and securing the 2012 crown.
STU earns the second TSC automatic berth into the 45-team National Championship Opening Round with the tournament crown. Embry-Riddle claimed the first with their regular season championship.
The 45 qualifiers and the seedings will be released on Sunday, May 6.
The Bobcats took no time in getting to SCAD starter Micah Thompson, plating a run in the first thanks to a Ricky Claudio single to left field, plating Luis Jimenez from third. Jimenez began the game by singling up the middle before stealing second and then third.
Hunter Pope tied the game in the home-half of the first, doubling to begin the frame, then moving to third and then touching home on consecutive fly outs by Will Cioffi and then Jamison Sweat. Matt Zajac collected the second double of the inning off of STU’s Michael Arostegui in the fourth SCAD at-bat, but the Bobcat hurler got Mark Malec to ground out to second to end the SCAD first with the score tied at 1-1.
A pair of nice defensive plays by Pope and Sweat in the second kept the Bobcats from mounting too much of a threat, and STU then returned the favor in the last of the second when Arostegui got an inning-ending double play off the bat of John Milian with SCAD runners at first and second.
St. Thomas put together a nice inning in the third, but only came away with one run in the frame. With the bases loaded after one run already scored, Hector Acosta flied out to deep center field. All the runners tagged up and were advancing when Carson Parker made a strong throw to second base where the runner was tagged out before the Bobcat attempting to score could touch home, keeping the STU lead at 2-1.
Zajac kick started the Bees’ fourth with his second double of the day off of Arostegui. After the Bobcat hurler got two quick outs, Acosta recorded a clutch single down the left field line that pushed Zajac across the plate to tie the game at 2-2.
Sweat gave his team a huge boost in the bottom of the sixth when he led off the frame with a solo homer over the wall in left field, giving the Bees a 3-2 lead. Arostegui was replaced by Rene Lozano during the inning, and Lozano retired the last batter in the sixth to send the Bobcats back into the dugout with only a one-run deficit.
Micah Thompson got in trouble in the seventh, allowing the first two batters to reach safely before he was relieved by Dylan Weber-Callahan. Weber-Callahan walked Antonio Sepulveda, and Luis Jimenez brought in the tying run with a fielder’s choice ground ball to short. Nicholas Perez was hit by a pitch to once again load the bags for the Bobcats. However, Victor Madrazo grounded a ball to the hole between third and short that was gloved by SCAD shortstop Pope before he threw to second to start a 6-4-3 double play, ending the inning and keeping the contest tied at 3-3.
Ashley Bulluck kept the game tied in the seventh when he stranded SCAD runners at first and third by getting Sweat to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
STU took their third lead of the afternoon in the visitor-half of the eighth when Acosta drove in the go-ahead run on a single up the middle, scoring Robert Rodriguez from second, and giving the Bobcats a 4-3 advantage.
SCAD put a pair of runners on base in the eighth against Bulluck, so with two outs, Head Coach Jorge Perez brought in All-Conference closer, Dane Stone to face pinch hitter Kelvin Goodson. Stone threw three pitches to Goodson, who eventually grounded out to short to end the Bees’ hopes in the frame.
St.Thomas nearly put some insurance runs on the board when the loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, but a base running blunder allowed STU to be doubled up on a fly ball to the outfield, ending the frame and sending the Bees to their final at-bat.
Stone struck out John Milan to begin the SCAD-half of the ninth before getting Pope to ground a pitch back to him for the second out. Will Cioffi put together a good at-bat, but Stone ended the tournament with a strikeout.