College Baseball: George Jenkins' Batcher helps Southeastern secure opening-round title
FAYETTE, Mo ― The Fire last Thursday captured its fifth straight NAIA National Tournament Opening Round title thanks to an 11-3 win over No. 2 Kansas Wesleyan.
The No. 1 team in the nation is currently in Lewiston, Idaho preparing for the Avista-NAIA World Series, looking to secure its third national championship in six years and back-to-back titles thanks to the opening-round clincher. Southeastern also beat Kansas Wesleyan University 15-1 in game one and No. 4 Madonna University 3-2 in the opening game of the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round.
“Sometimes guys forget how hard it is and how hard they worked to get to the World Series,” Southeastern head coach Adrian Dinkel said. “I’m excited for our guys to have this opportunity.”
It was nine runs offensively in the last four innings that blew game two open. But it was former George Jenkins all-county pitcher and current starting Fire pitcher, Danny Batcher, who was composed after hitting a batter and walking two batters in the first inning before retiring the next 13 batters he faced all the way up to the fifth inning.
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“I’ve never really been in this situation before and went out a little antsy,” Batcher said. “I settled down after the first inning and had my whole team behind me to help. It felt good having everyone cheer me on and have my back was a really good feeling.”
With the win, Batcher is now 9-0 as a starting pitcher thanks to striking out seven and allowing one run, three hits and two walks.
“He was intentional, “Dinkel said of Batcher. “When he’s intentional and goes after people and gets ahead, he’s really good. I’m happy to see he went out and did it today.”
Helping in run support was Isaac Nunez who led off in the third with his 17th homer of the season, which gave the Fire the lead.
Jose Marcano was 4-for-5, while Nunez culminated the game 3-for-for with two walks. In the sixth, Stephen Cullen hit a homer and Josh Pigozzo scorched a two-run homer, his 13th of the season, which made the score 5-1 at that point.
“It’s awesome to go back to the World Series but this is just the first step, so hopefully we keep having fun and keep swinging it because we have a special group,” Cullen said.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: George Jenkins' Batcher helps Southeastern secure opening-round title
