LSUS drops second World Series game to nation's No. 1
May 25, 2003
The Oklahoma City Stars, No. 1 in the nation all season in the NAIA rankings, proved to be too much for the LSUS Pilots Saturday night and Sunday morning in the Pilots' second NAIA World Series game. The Stars' powerful lineup scored runs in every inning after a 1-hour-27-minute rain delay in the top of the third inning.
Well after 2 a.m. Sunday, the game wound its way through the top of the ninth, ending with the Stars taking a 13-5 win to the next round in the winners' bracket. But, not before the Pilots recorded a rare triple play in the bottom of the seventh. Left fielder Cole Reynolds caught a fly ball in foul territory with the bases loaded for the first out, threw to Ben Wingerter at third who relayed the ball to Miguel Hernandez to catch the runner coming back to first, and finally back to Wingerter to nail the runner caught off third base.
LSUS played Oklahoma City scoreless until the rain delay, which came with two outs in the top of the third inning. The Stars scored twice in the bottom of the third, but the Pilots came right back to take the lead with three runs in the top of the fourth. The Stars answered with four in the bottom of the fourth to retake the lead for good. Pilots crossed the plate once in the fifth and sixth innings, but the Stars "one-upped" the Pilots in each frame, scoring 1, 3, 2 and 1 runs in the fifth through eighth innings.
The game gave Oklahoma City its 60th win of the season(60-6-1), while LSUS' record moved to 50-23.
The Pilots play Spaulding (Kentucky) University at 2 p.m. (CDT) Monday. Oklahoma City plays Bellvue (Nebraska) at 5:30 p.m. Monday.
