Box Score
SEGUIN, Texas -- The Mississippi College Choctaws ended Texas Lutheran's 2010 American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament run with a 9-8 victory in 11 innings Sunday at TLU's Katt-Isbel Field.
The elimination game was a resumption of Saturday's action between TLU and MC. The game was halted Saturday due to darkness with the teams set to begin the 10th inning tied at 8-8. The contest re-started at 11 a.m. Sunday.
The first championship game between the University of Texas at Tyler and MC will start at 1 p.m., also on Sunday. The second championship game would start 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first. MC needs two wins over Texas-Tyler to claim the conference title.
The Choctaws (36-8) scored a run in the 11th with an RBI single from Shane Bennett. The single from Bennett scored Bo Bell, who reached with a one-out double.
Bennett moved from third base to the pitching mound when the game resumed. Bennett saw his first pitching action of 2010 and tossed two scoreless frames, striking out three and walking one. The Bulldogs did not have a hit against Bennett.
Kyle Eaves (0-1) took the loss for the Bulldogs. He went 1-1/3 innings, surrendered two hits and the one earned run. TLU ace Brad Orosey relieved Eaves in the 11th and produced a ground ball double play to end the Choctaws' 11th.
TLU's season is likely over at 32-13. The Bulldogs would need a Pool C at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Championships. (In its history, the ASC has received only one Pool C bid.) The winner of the conference tournament receives the ASC's automatic bid to the NCAA post-season tournament.
TLU won the loser's bracket game early Saturday against Hardin-Simmons, eliminating the Cowboys 10-6. The Bulldogs advanced to play Mississippi College in a second elimination game at 4:45 p.m., also on Saturday. MC fell to the University of Texas at Tyler 13-2 in the winner's bracket 1 p.m. game.
In a back-and-forth affair that saw each team take late leads, the game between TLU and MC was suspended due to darkness before the start of the 10th inning with the game tied, 8-8.
TLU rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth after the Choctaws scored a pair of runs in the top of the ninth.
Isaac Tijerina started TLU's ninth-inning magic with a single. He then scored on an RBI double by Jason McGill. McGill advanced to third on the throw home and scored on an RBI single from Evan Curtis.
TLU had the winning run at third base, but MC's Daniel Cowart recorded a strikeout to end the Bulldogs' chance. The umpires and coaches talked after the ninth and agreed to resume the game at 11 a.m. Sunday.
MC took its 8-6 lead against TLU in the top of the ninth with a two-RBI single from Bennett.
Bell drove in three runs, and Dakota Bodree and Andy Smith each had three hits. Smith also scored three runs.
TLU's Chris Green had three hits and three runs scored, and Curtis and McGill each had two hits. Curtis had two of the six TLU RBI. Clay Childress, Darwin Lucero and Cody Miller each drove in a run against the Choctaws.