Once again, Russell Longworth came through for the Tabor College baseball team in a do-or-die situation.
Facing elimination in their second game of the NAIA World Series Saturday, the Bluejays entrusted the ball to Longworth, who pitched a complete-game shutout to give Tabor a 2-0 victory over seventh-seeded No. 7 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.).
As he had in Tabor?s opening round championship victory over Bellevue and in a complete-game shutout over Mayville State before that, the senior left-hander commanded the game, needing just 90 pitches to get the job done. He threw three 1-2-3 innings, scattering just five hits and walking no one. Longworth secured the last out of the game by strikeout?his fourth on the day.
?We knew coming in that it was going to be a tough game?no doubt,? coach Mark Standiford said. ?We were playing a really good team. Russell (Longworth) has been outstanding for us his last three outings. We had a lot of confidence in him, and he didn?t let us down at all.?
Having struggled offensively the day before in a 9-1 loss to Embry-Riddle?Tabor batted a collective .094 and did not collect a base hit until the sixth inning?the Bluejay bats heated up from the start against Lindsey Wilson as Michael Baca led off the bottom of the first inning with a single and later scored to give Tabor a 1-0 lead.
Matthew Molbury keyed a one-run sixth inning by launching an RBI double off Blue Raider starter Scott Sebald to score Alex Couch from second, who had led off the inning with a single.
That was all the run support Longworth needed, although Tabor left a few scoring opportunities on the field. The Bluejays stranded six base runners. Baca was thrown out attempting to score on a single off the bat of Couch in the third inning, and Tabor left runners on the corners in a hit-less fifth inning. The Bluejays also left a base runner in both the sixth and eighth innings.
Couch led the team on 3-for-4 hitting for the day. Baca and Molbury were both 2-for-4, with Molbury picking up the Bluejays? only RBI.
Embry-Riddle 9, Tabor 1
World Series Game 1, Friday
The No. 3 Bluejays endured a disappointing debut to the 2015 Avista-NAIA World Series Friday, suffering a 9-1 loss to the sixth-seeded Eagles.
Eagle starter Stetson Nelson (10-4) pitched five no-hit innings before surrendering a single to Alex Couch in the bottom of the sixth. Nelson earned the win, scattering three hits and one earned run over 71?3 innings. He walked three batters and struck out four.
The Eagles plated more than enough run support for Nelson. After a lightning delay paused the game for an hour and a half after the first inning, Enderson Velasquez led off the second inning with a double?the first of six doubles for the Eagles?and Embry-Riddle scored its first two runs on Hunter Bruehl?s two-out, two-run double.
The Eagles drove in a third run with a fourth-inning double by Joshua Garcia and took a 4-0 lead with an RBI single in the fifth. In both innings, the Eagles coaxed leadoff walks off Tabor ace Dustin Hurlbutt.
The sixth inning spelled double the trouble for the Bluejays. Hurlbutt?s night ended after giving up a single and an RBI double to open the inning, but Bruehl keyed the four-run frame with a two-run home run off reliever David Renteria, who had given up an RBI double to Matt Jacobs just two batters prior. By the end of the frame, Embry-Riddle led, 8-0.
The Bluejays scored their only run in the seventh inning. Colton Flax coaxed a one-out walk off Nelson, and after a single by Tanner Bell and a wild pitch to advance the base runners, Flax scored on a ball grounded to the shortstop off the bat of Michael Baca.
The Eagles scored once more in the eighth without a hit.
Hurlbutt (10-3) sustained the loss, giving up nine hits and six runs (all earned) over five innings. He walked two batters and struck out six.
In addition to singles by Couch and Bell, Matthew Molbury had a base hit in the bottom of the eighth to account for the three Bluejay hits.
Coming?With the win, Tabor stayed alive to fight another day, ending Lindsey Wilson?s first NAIA World Series appearance.
The Bluejays were scheduled to face a familiar opponent in Oklahoma Baptist Monday. Tabor lost a March meeting to the Bison, 5-4, at Wichita State?s Eck Stadium. At the time, OBU ranked first in the nation and Tabor ranked fourth.
