College Baseball: Fire's free passes end stellar season
LEWISTON, Idaho ― Southeastern all year earned its way deep in the Avista NAIA World Series. But it was free passes that ended hopes of capturing back-to-back national baseball titles.
The Fire (58-6) registered seven walks, hit four batters, was called for a balk that scored a run, and committed a pair of defensive infractions in a 6-4 contest on Thursday night in Lewiston, Idaho.
“Any time you give up that many free passes in a situation where you felt you could control the game with them offensively, when you don’t throw the ball over the plate, you’re going to put yourself in a tough situation,” Southeastern head baseball coach Adrian Dinkel said. “Those guys competed to the end and I’m proud of them.”
Southeastern started Darien Smith. But a walk with the bases loaded in the third followed by a balk put Westmont, the No. 3 team in the country, up 2-1, which answered Chayce Bryant’s fourth home run of the tournament and 23 home run of the season in the previous inning.
Also, two RBIs in the game were thanks to Adonys Herrera’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third to tie the game. But an RBI single to right by Gary Lora gave the Fire the lead back.
Later in the fifth, the Warriors scored a run on a sacrifice fly.
The Fire’s Josh Pigozzo mustered up a one-out double in the fifth and was brought home by Herrera, which gave Southeastern a 4-3 lead.
Southeastern relinquished the lead in the sixth when Westmont utilized a single, hit by pitch, and walk to take the lead. What’s more, a two-out error in the seventh on a dropped fly ball meant a two-run lead.
Still, the Fire had its chances. The No. 1 team in the nation had two on in the seventh with just one out, but a strikeout and a pop out ended the threat, as Southeastern had the last eight hitters of the game retired.
The Fire's Jay Schueler was able to retire the last seven hitters he competed against, which kept the contest within reach. In total, he allowed one unearned run on one hit over three innings of action.
“I’m proud of Jay and excited where he’s at and having him as part of the program going forward,” Dinkel said. “He worked and grinded and found a way to stay in it.”
The first five hitters in the Southeastern batting order were the ones responsible for all 10 hits in the contest, with Pigozzo and Bryant posting three each.
While the season came to a close, this was the sixth season of 50-plus wins in the last seven years, with the 2020 — the COVID-10 year ― being the exception.
“When the expectations are to win the last game of the year in your program, you feel like you’ve created something special,” Dinkel said. “But that’s tough to put on any program where they feel like they have to win the last game of the year, but they did a great job all year long.”
The Fire had eight players hit .300 or better during the course of the year. The two leading hitters on the team were Isaac Nunez with a .433 average, 101 hits, 18 home runs and 61 RBIs and Herrera with a .401 average, 79 hits,12 home runs and 53 RBIs.
The best on the hill record-wise were former George Jenkins' pitcher Danny pitcher with a 9-0 record, 83 strikeouts and a 2.93 ERA and Darien Smith with a 10-2 record,127 strikeouts and a 2.94 ERA. Robb Adams also had a steady season on the mound with a 7-2 record, 104 strikeouts and 3.36 ERA, while Reece Wissinger was up to 5-0 with 81 strikeouts and a whopping .86 ERA.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: College Baseball: Fire's free passes end stellar season
