SUGAR LAND, Texas – The University of New Orleans (28-31) fell in heartbreak despite clutch pitching out of the bullpen but it set up for a rematch in a few hours as the Privateers take on Houston Baptist University (29-29) 4-3 Saturday morning at Constellation Field in the 2018 Southland Conference Championship.
All 12 of HBU's hits were singles and the Huskies left 15 men on base.
The Privateers pitching staff came up with the big pitch when they needed to, highlighted by
Matt Gillis' three strikeouts in 2.2 innings but the story was the huge eighth inning. A leadoff single by
Pearce Howard was followed by a two-run shot off the bat of
Orynn Veillon, who deposited his fifth home run of the season to tie the game at 3-3 just after midnight.
Gillis went 3.2 shutout frames and struck out four, allowing just two hits. Heading into the bottom of the ninth, it was closing time as
John Barr entered the game. With the winning run in scoring position, the right-hander continued to lower his miniscule ERA with back-to-back strikeouts and a pop out to send us into extras at 12:44 a.m. The high-leverage situations the New Orleans pitching staff continued to pitch itself out of sent UNO to its second extra-inning game of the Southland Conference Championship.
Reeves Martin entered in the bottom of the 10
th and the right-hander struck out Spencer Halloran with the winning run in scoring position to send us into the 11
th. In the bottom frame,
Christopher DeMayo went 1-2-3 with a lineout and back-to-back strikeouts to send us into the 12
th.
HBU was prime position in the 12
th with the leadoff runners on but the Huskies failed to lay down a bunt and Jack Fitzgerald was hit on a full count to load the bases.
Rafe Schindler entered the game to face the leadoff hitter Tyler Depreta-Johnson. On the first pitch, Schindler got Depreta-Johnson to foul out to
Scott Crabtree for the first out. A close play at the plate with a weak comebacker kept the score at 3-3 but a breaking ball caught HBU to walk it off in 12.
The 4-hour, 32-minute game ended in heartbreak but not disaster for UNO as the Privateers take on the Huskies tomorrow at 1 p.m. with the winner advancing to the championship game against Northwestern State University at 6 p.m.
DeMayo (1-2) was charged with the loss after giving up the run in an inning. JT Newton (3-5) was lights out in relief, going 4.1 innings while allowing a hit.
Brayson Smith battled early but came up with two huge pitches in the first to strand two Huskie baserunners. The right-hander forced a liner to
Darren Willis to double up Depreta-Johnson at second. Smith struck out Jake Pulcheon to end the inning unscathed.
HBU was able to get a runner on in the second but Smith continued to come up with the right pitch at the right time, picking up back-to-back strikeouts to end the second.
Back-to-back walks by Willis and
Collin Morrill put UNO in the driver's seat as the Privateers continued to be patient against Taylor Franzman, who was making just his third start and 10
th appearance of the season. Deja vu struck as New Orleans was called out due to a baseball slide and Halloran made a diving stop in left to end the inning with a runner on third.
The big hurler fired the biggest pitch to date with a full count and caught Pulcheon chasing to end the third with runners on first and second. The Huskies continued to mount onto the pitch count of Smith with the junior tossing 62 in 3.0 innings but the number that mattered was that zero. Smith came up with four punchouts through 1/3 of the ballgame.
Bratton singled up the middle for his second base knock of the game and
Jay Robinson followed with a single past the diving Fitzgerald to put runners on first and second with one out in the fourth. Crabtree walked to load the bases and after a pair of pitches to
Devin Morrill, HBU made a pitching change, summoning right-hander Weston Smart with a 2-0 count. Devin drove a 2-2 pitch to left field to bring home the game's first run of the game and put New Orleans in front 1-0.
The Huskies loaded the bases as the batting order flipped to the leadoff spot with one out. Continuing his Houdiniesque ways, popping up Depreta-Johnson to shallow right field for the second out. After getting ahead of Jonathan Ducoff, the center fielder walked to knot the game at 1-1. However, that was all for HBU as the No. 4 seed stranded the bases loaded on Smith's sixth strikeout of the evening heading into the Sugar Land city noise ordinance.
The final song played? The walk-up of
Rafael Martinez, who entered to begin the bottom half of the fifth.
Smith went 4.0 innings, striking out six.
Martinez struck out the leadoff hitter, but a wild pitch allowed him to reach base. A sacrifice moved Matt Heck into scoring position and a single allowed Heck to score. An error moved the right fielder into scoring position and he scored on Grant Buck's single to give HBU a 3-1 lead.
Gillis entered a came up with a huge 4-6-3 double play to end the fifth. In the sixth, Gillis struck out the first two batters he faced and retired the side with a groundout to complete 2/3 of the semifinals contest.
Howard led off the eighth with a single and Veillon followed with the biggest hit of his sensational Privateer career to date with a two-run bomb to left-center field to tie the game at 3-3.
Gillis tossed a scoreless eighth and his evening/morning was complete after 3.2 innings.
A leadoff walk by Barr put the winning run on and a wild pitch advanced the pinch runner Anthony Jones into scoring position. Barr got Buck to chase on a pitch in the dirt for the first out and did the same, getting Scott to whiff at three pitches in the dirt for the second out of the inning. A popout sent us into extras.
Martin tossed a shutout 10
th with two strikeouts and DeMayo matched in the 11
th.
The 12
th ended with a hit by pitch giving HBU a 4-3 win.
HOW TO FOLLOW
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