RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The No. 2-seed Arkansas Tech baseball team punched their ticket to their fourth-straight NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament in front of its home fans on Friday night as they completed a series victory against No. 8-seed East Central in the GAG Baseball Championship Series with a 13-6 win.
The win gives the Wonder Boys their first-ever tournament title in the GAC and their first postseason tournament championship since 1984 when Tech won the District 17 championship.
The Wonder Boys will now await to see their seed, opponent and destination for the upcoming Central Region Tournament. That information will be announced on the official NCAA DII Baseball Selection Show which is scheduled for 9 p.m. on Sunday, May 10. That show will be streamed on NCAA.com
In addition to being the fourth-straight appearance at the regional tournament for the Wonder Boys, this is also the fifth time in the last six seasons that they have advanced.
Unlike the night before where the Wonder Boys trailed for much of the game, the Wonder Boys struck first with a two-run bottom of the first inning courtesy of a two-run home run by
Tyler Sardelli. In the half inning prior, Wonder Boys' starter
Daniel Hutchison walked the leadoff batter to start the game, but got a ground ball double play and then a second groundout to end the inning without a run.
The combination of Hutchison working out of the top of the first and Sardelli's homer, the Wonder Boys were off and running.
In the bottom of the third, the Wonder Boys broke the game open and scored five runs on five hits to take a 7-0 lead. That inning started with three-consecutive singles from
Drew Vega,
Derek Rockett and
Cole Dawson. Dawson's hit drove in the first of the frame for the Wonder Boys.
Sardelli then drew walk to load the bases with no outs. After the first out of the inning was recorded, last night's hero,
Tommy Caya, came through once more, this time with a two-run single. Later in the inning,
Brendyn Bard doubled home two more runs, scoring Sardelli and Caya.
The Tigers would put their first run on the board in the top of the fourth on a solo home run, but Tech had an answer in the bottom of the frame as Caya hit a sacrifice fly to score Dawson, who had walked earlier in the inning.
After neither team scored in the fifth, ECU plated a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to cut the lead down to five, 8-3. Once more, however, the Wonder Boys had an answer in their half of the inning as they got a three-run home run to right field off the bat of
Kirby Jenkins, pushing their lead out eight runs, 11-3.
The Tigers would not go quietly and scored three runs to tighten things up and make it 11-6.
Tech was able to tack on a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth on a sac fly from Jenkins and Dawson scoring on a wild pitch, bringing the score to its final of 13-6.
