LEWISTON, Idaho—Top-seeded Southeastern had to overcome numerous obstacles during its extra innings win over Tennessee Wesleyan Wednesday night.
Despite trailing by three, committing five errors, giving up three runs in the ninth to surrender the lead, the Fire found a way to knock off the second-seeded Bulldogs, 8-7 in 10 innings to advance to Thursday's national championship game.
"It's a rollercoaster of a game," said coach
Adrian Dinkel. "At one point it was eight or nine free passes in the first four innings so for us it was just trying to get on even keel."
It all culminated with
Shamir Morales' two-out game-ending RBI single to right field to score pinch runner
Drew Gillespie to send the Fire to the title game for the second time in five years.
"The key to this team is resilience and knowing anyone coming in is going to do the job," said Morales who also homered in the third to get the Fire on the scoreboard for the first time in the game. "All year, it's taken a team effort and the trust we have in each other is a big key in that."
A two-out three-run home run in the top of the second inning got the scoring started for Tennessee Weselyan (56-8), taking advantage of a walk and a hit by pitch. Morales got the offense going in the third with his first home run of the season and just his third hit of the postseason.
The fourth inning saw the Fire commit three errors resulting in a run to put SEU (58-3) back down three. A 1-2-3 fifth inning by reliever DJ Roberts helped Southeastern get back into it.
Stephen Cullen doubled to lead off the inning, then came home on
Jose Marcano's single up the middle on a play that was changed by a replay review. Morales bunted Marcano over to third, then was brought home on an RBI single by
Thomas Broyles to get within a run at 4-3.
Roberts had to work through a jam in the sixth with the bases loaded and one out. He got a ground ball back to him and threw home to get the second out and got a fly out to the right field warning track to keep his team within a run.
Roberts went 5.2 innings, allowing no earned runs on six hits with four strikeouts and one walk.
"He changed the momentum of the game," said Dinkel of Roberts. "He put some swing in the momentum in the dugout, he was a guy for us last year and for us early in the year and had some struggles so to see him have some success today was a good thing."
Gary Lora got the sixth inning started with a single to right field and went all the way to third on a wild pitch that kicked around the back wall. A walk to
Sam Faith put runners at the corners for
Isaac Nunez, who singled through the left side to tie the game. Later in the inning, Faith came home on a passed ball to give the Fire the lead.
The SEU lead went to two on a sacrifice fly by Marcano to score Lora who singled to lead off the inning.
Down to its last out, Tennessee Wesleyan got an RBI single following an intentional walk to make it 6-5 then got a two-run double to regain the lead at 7-6.
Broyles drew a walk to lead off the inning but was put out on a ground ball by
Abdel Guadalupe. A balk advanced pinch runner
Zach Diewert to second with two outs and was brought home on an RBI single to right by Lora.
Damien Torres worked a shutout 10
th which was highlighted by Cullen diving to first base to make the final out of the inning to allow the Fire the chance to walk it off in the bottom of the inning. A one-out walk to Cullen put the winning run on base, then was advanced to second on a wild pitch. Marcano's flyout to right field moved Gillespie to third to set up Morales' game-ending hit.
Lora finished the game 4-for-5 and Nunez was 3-for-5. Morales and Broyles had two hits each.
The Fire will now take on Lewis-Clark State on Thursday at 4 p.m. Eastern in the championship game.
