Union rolls past UVa-Wise, 16-6, advances to region finals

KINGSPORT, Tenn. - Second-seeded Union College made its way to the NAIA Region XII Baseball Tournament championship game after posting a 16-6 victory over No. 4 seed UVa-Wise Friday at Hunter Wright Stadium in Kingsport, Tenn.

Union (43-15 overall) will face top-seeded Tennessee Wesleyan College at 12 p.m. In order to win the tournament, Union must defeat Tennessee Wesleyan twice since it came out of the losers' bracket.

UVa-Wise ends the season with a 31-23 overall record.

Union ripped 16 hits in the win with Kenny Kysar (Corbin, Ky.) leading the way in going 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Brett McAlpin (Winchester, Ky.) led the team with three RBIs, while Justin Hart (Lake Mary, Fla.), Josh Ehringer (Somerset, Ky.), Matt Brady (Louisville, Ky.), Trey Wheeler (Hopkinsville, Ky.) and David Fairbanks (Cincinnati, Ohio) each knocked in two runs.

Scoring two runs in the top of the first and one in the second, Union owned a 3-0 lead when UVa-Wise pushed a pair of runs in the bottom of the second. However, Union posted four runs in the third and tacked on two more in the fourth for a 9-2 cushion.

UVa-Wise threatened that lead, scoring twice in the fourth and fifth to pull within 9-6. But Union closed out the game with seven unanswered runs en route to the 16-6 victory.

Hart belted a solo home run in the sixth for his seventh four-bagger of the season.

Tyler Jones (Bowling Green, Ky.) came in relief in the fifth and picked up the win, improving his record to 4-0. He went 4 2/3 innings, allowing no runs on four hits and two walks with no strikeouts.

Bulldog Notes

* Union and Tennessee Wesleyan met in the 2007 NAIA Region XII Tournament championship, but Union advanced through the winners' bracket. Tennessee Wesleyan won the first game13-6, but Union ultimately won the championship with an 11-6 decision in the final and decisive game.
* Union scored 34 runs in two games on Friday, giving it 493 runs on the season. Union is averaging 8.5 runs per game.
* Joe Grinstead three runs in the win, giving him 70 on the year - three shy of the program record which is 73, set by Scott Benson in 2002.

Cavs Unable to Stop Bulldogs, Season Ends

Kingsport, Tenn. – After heading into Friday without a blemish, UVa-Wise was unable to stop Union College in the NAIA Region XII baseball night game to suffer its second and season-ending defeat. The Bulldogs scored in each of its first four at bats on the way to a 16-6 win over the Cavs.

Despite the long list of injuries, UVa-Wise wraps up its season with the second-most victories in a year with 31. The Cavs’ 31-23 mark ended just one shy of last season’s 32-17-1 record.

Brad Robbins (Big Stone Gap, Va.) lined his second two-run homer of the day and a single. Brad Austin (Hillsville, Va.) doubled and singled while Logan Limburg (Bristol, Va.) singled two times. Edwin Narvaez sliced a double while Brad Ricker (Bristol, Va.), Jorge Laboy (Woodbridge, Va.) and Mike Lang (Fredericksburg, Va.) had the other hits with singles.

After blistering Indiana-Southeast by an 18-2 score, Union (43-15) kept the offense rolling into the night game with UVa-Wise. The Bulldogs scored two unearned runs in the top of the first and added a single run in the second to move in front 3-0.

In the home second, Matt Duffy was hit by a pitch to lead off the at bat. Robbins followed by connecting for a two-run homer to cut the difference to 3-2.

UVa-Wise would get no closer. Union pushed across four more runs in the third and a pair in the fourth to make it 9-2.

Narvaez doubled home two runners in the fourth and Limburg singled home two more tallies in the fifth for a 9-6 contest.

The Bulldogs would score the final seven runs of the night with four in the sixth, two in the seventh and a final run in the ninth for the 16-6 final.