LSUS to host Embry-Riddle in NAIA Super Regional
May 12, 2003
The LSUS Pilots, who won the NAIA Region XIII baseball championship with two one-run wins Saturday, will host the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Eagles in the best of three Atlantic South Super Regional series beginning Thursday.
Games begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday at the LSUS baseball field on the university's campus. Saturday's game, if necessary, will begin at 2 p.m. General admission tickets are $5. LSUS students and children 4 years old and younger will be admitted free to all games.
The winner of the Super Regional series advances to the NAIA World Series May 23-30 at Harris Field on the campus of Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho.
The Daytona Beach-based Embry-Riddle Eagles, sporting a 46-12 season record, won the Region XIV championship by defeating Warner Southern twice on Saturday, 4-3 and 10-6, in the double-elimination tournament. Both schools are members of the Florida Sun Conference.
LSUS, 47-21, won the Region XIII title by taking two games from Gulf Coast Athletic Conference foe and tournament host William Carey College. The Pilots won the first game 2-1 and the second 10-9 in 11 innings. In the second game, the Pilots built an eight-run lead, only to see the Crusaders whittle it away by taking advantage of an exhausted pitching staff. By the end of the series, the Pilots had played four games in two days - three against William Carey - and gave up a total of 25 runs. William Carey played only three games Friday and Saturday, all against LSUS, giving up 14 runs.
At the end of the regional tournament, Pilots Head Coach Rocke Musgraves was named NAIA Region XIII Coach of the Year. The Pilots' skipper was recognized for leading his team to a school-record numbers of wins for a season, bounding past the previous record of 36-28 set last year. He was also recognized for taking the Pilots to their first-ever NAIA regional tournament, and for winning the tournament.
