KINGSPORT, Tenn. – The fourth-seeded Indiana Tech baseball team fell to fifth-seeded University of Rio Grande (Ohio), 5-4, on Tuesday afternoon in the opening game of the 2016 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round in the Kingsport Bracket at Hunter Wright Stadium.
Rio Grande's Luis Jimenez would send the first pitch he saw from reliever
Connor McLaughlin into the seats in left field in the top of the ninth to give the Red Storm a 5-4 lead and before starter Daryin Lewis finished off the Warriors in the ninth to go the distance on the mound.
The Red Storm got out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first as they used a pair of doubles and a single to get ahead of starter
James McReynolds. Tech would come right back to tie in the bottom of the inning however, using a pair of walks, one to
Kyle Mead to lead things off and then one to
Glen McClain with two outs, before
Charlie Sipe drilled a triple to right to knot it up at two apiece.
Rio Grande would retake the lead in the next half-inning with a leadoff walk and a pair of hits to make a 3-1 ball game, but the Warriors would take advantage of three errors in the third to tie it back up at three.
Alex Delk would then single to center to score
Peyton Newsom in the fourth as the Orange and Black took their first lead of the ball game to lead 4-3 with five innings to go.
The fifth seed in the Kingsport Bracket would use a double, wild pitch and sacrifice fly to right to tie the game at four in the seventh and before scoring the go-ahead run in the ninth of McLaughlin. Newsom would lead off the bottom of the ninth with a single, but would only get as far as second as Tech now falls into the elimination part of the bracket.
Sipe finished 1-4 with a triple, two walks and two RBI's while Newsom went 3-4 with a double and scored once. Tatum would go 1-2 while recording a pair of sacrifice bunts. McReynolds finished the day by going 6.2 innings, allowing four runs, all earned, on seven hits and four walks. McLaughlin would take the loss after throwing 2.1 innings, allowing one earned run on two hits and a walk while striking out three.
Tech (39-19) will play the two seed Middle Georgia State, who fell to third-seeded St. Thomas (Fla.), 2-1, in the game follwing the Warriors, on Wednesday at 11 a.m. from Hunter Wright Stadium. Links to live stats will be available at IndianaTechWarriors.com.
