FOREST CITY, N.C. --- The No. 3-seed Tusculum College baseball dropped a pair of high-scoring contests Sunday and was eliminated from the 2015 South Atlantic Conference Tournament.
No. 1 seed Catawba College led wire-to-wire in its 10-7 win over the Pioneers in the winner's bracket final. Fifth-seeded Wingate University broke an 8-8 tie with four runs in the top of the ninth inning in defeating Tusculum 12-8 in Sunday night's elimination bracket final.
Catawba and Wingate will meet in the championship game on Monday at 1 p.m.
The Pioneers drop their record 29-18 and will wrap up their regular-season this week with five games, including four contests at Pioneer Park.
No. 12 Catawba 10, Tusculum 7 (Box Score)
Top-seed Catawba scored five runs in the first inning and answered every Tusculum rally in advancing to Monday's championship game with a 10-7 victory in the winner's bracket final.
The Indians (38-10) posted 17 hits in the game, including Blake Houston's 3-for-5 performance with two home runs and three RBI. Malachi Hanes added three hits with a run scored, while Dylan Richardson also finished with three hits, including a pair of doubles.
Andrew Bowerman went 2-for-3 with a double, one RBI and two walks. Jalen Shuffler posted a 2-for-5 effort, including his team-leading sixth home run.
The Indians batted around in the bottom of the first inning with six hits, including Will Albertson's two-run single and Luke Setzer's RBI double.
Tusculum got on the board in the second inning with Shuffler's two-out solo homer to right field.
Catawba increased its lead to 7-1 in the fourth inning on Houston's two-run homer.
The Pioneers answered with four runs in the fifth inning, including Creighton Wilke's two-run double as TC trailed 7-5.
The Indians got two of those runs back in the seventh, while Tusculum answered two of its own in the top of the eighth to make it a 9-7 ballgame.
Houston homered for the second time in the game to leadoff the eighth to provide the final scoring margin.
Catawba reliever Avery Bowles (3-1) pitched 3 1/3 innings where he allowed one hit, two runs, two walks and three strikeouts. Ryan McClintock pitched the final 1 1/3 innings to record his eighth save of the year. Tusculum starter McKenly Berry (4-6) suffered the loss.
Wingate 12, Tusculum 8 (Box Score)
No. 5-seed Wingate (30-21) plated four runs in the top of the ninth inning to out-last Tusculum 12-8 in the SAC Tournament elimination bracket final.
Wingate's Shane Billings led the Bulldogs' 16-hit performance by going 4-for-6 with two doubles and two RBI. Bill Krebs also recorded a pair of doubles in his 3-for-5 effort. Teammates Thomas Spitz, Bradley Brown and Colby Barnette tallied two hits apiece in the victory.
Tusculum (29-18) finished with a dozen hits, including Bowerman's 3-for-5 effort, while Tullidge, Waylock and Shuffler each posted two hits in the loss.
Wingate reliever Cameron Price picked up the victory to improve to 1-2 on the season. TC's Devan Watts suffered the loss to fall to 4-3.
Tusculum led 1-0 after the first inning as Bowerman led off with a double and scored on Kevin Victoriano's RBI double, his sixth of the season.
Wingate tied the game at 1-1 when Krebs hit a one-out double in the third inning and score on a Billings' RBI single. TC answered with a run in the bottom of the frame as Bowerman led off with another double, his team-leading 13th of the season, and later score on Waylock's two-out single. Tusculum made it 3-1 thanks to Shuffler's second home run of the day, a solo shot down the right field line.
The Bulldogs rallied with three runs in the fifth inning as WU posted three doubles in the frame and a two-run single off the back of Michael Godinez.
With Wingate lead 4-3, the Pioneers tied the game with a run in the bottom of the fifth as Jeovanny Tolentino led off wit ha single and later scored on Waylock's RBI groundout.
Wingate regained the advantage with a run in the top of the seventh inning on a Thomas Spitz two-out single to drive in Billings with the go-ahead score (5-4).
The Pioneers put together a two-out rally in the seventh as TC loaded the bases and John Topoleski cleared them with his three-run double for a 7-5 Tusculum advantage.
The Bulldogs responded with three runs of their own in the eighth. Josh Clark led off with a walk and Barnette homered over the left field wall to tie the game at 7-7. Krebs later doubled with two outs and score on a Spitz base hit to put Wingate up 8-7.
Shuffler led off the eighth inning with a single and moved to second base on a Nick Rodriguez bunt. Bowerman recorded his third hit of the game with a single down the right field line to drive in Shuffler to tie the game at 8-8.
Wingate used three hits and a Tusculum error to plate four runs in the ninth, including Clark's RBI single.
Tusculum returns to action on Tuesday when they Pioneers travel to Lee University to take on the Flames. The Pioneers will wrap up the regular season with a four-game home-stand. TC will take on UVA-Wise on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. and will host Bluefield State College for a three-game weekend series (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) at Pioneer Park.
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