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West
Virginia State eliminated from Div II Baseball Championship
June 1, 2005
Florida Southern
6, West Virginia St. 5
Florida Southern stayed alive in the NCAA Division II Baseball
Championship at Montgomery, Alabama, winning a 6-5 thriller to eliminate West
Virginia State Wednesday night. The win gives the Moccasins (48-11) a re-match
Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. (EDT) against top-ranked Central Missouri State.
The Mules downed FSC 5-2 Saturday night and are unbeaten in two games. The
other game Thursday at 3:30 p.m. (EDT) will send unbeaten North Florida against
Grand Valley State, which eliminated defending champion Delta State 11-7 Wednesday.
The Moccasins and Grand Valley State must win Thursday and again Friday to
reach Saturday's championship game. Central Missouri State and North Florida
need only one more win to advance to the title game. All of Florida Southern's
games in the double-elimination tournament are broadcast live on the Internet,
with FSC Sports Information Director Bill Turnage calling the play-by-play.
Against 10th-ranked West Virginia State, the second-ranked Mocs built an
early lead, scoring single runs in each of the first three innings. Nick Diyorio
led off the game with a single, stole second and scored on Fred Popp's double.
Alexy Hernandez hit a two-out solo home run, his sixth of the season, in the
second. Geoff Strickland singled with one out in the third, went to third on
a wild pitch and scored on Matt Mercurio's single. They added two more runs
in the sixth on RBI-singles by Paul Ryan and Adam Calderone that scored Jeff
Howell and Matt Joyce.
Brian Reves blanked the Yellow Jackets on two hits through five innings,
but gave way to Brett Robinson after a two-run homer by Ryan Taylor and a walk
in the sixth. Robinson recorded one out on a fielder's choice and a second
on a pop fly to Mercurio, but walked Justin Gray and Tyler Courts reached on
an infield single. The Mocs brought in closer Kyle DeYoung, who gave up a two-run
single to Boo Hager before striking out Josh Miller to end the inning.
In the seventh, the Moccasins added what proved to be the winning run when
Strickland walked and stole second, went to third on Mercurio's sacrifice bunt,
and scored on Popp's sacrifice fly to put FSC ahead 6-4. West Virginia State
came right back with a run in the bottom of the inning to trim the lead to
6-5.
DeYoung had to work out of a bases-loaded one-out jam in the bottom of the
eighth after an error and two walks, but he was able to get Josh Miller to
hit into an inning-ending double play and then retired the side in order in
the ninth to record his 16th save of the season and preserve the win for Reves,
who improved to 6-2. It was the 23rd win of Reves' career.
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