Norris Leads Pilots past William Woods in NAIA Opening Round
May 12, 2011
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The no. 6 LSU Shreveport Pilots defeated the William Woods Owls by a final score of 10-5 on Thursday night at the AUM Baseball Complex in the 2011 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round.The Pilots (43-13) struck first as Manny Estrada led off the game with a walk and went to third base on Kevin Smith's double to right. Estrada scored on an infield single from Chase Wentz to give the Pilots the early 1-0 lead. LSUS added another run in the second inning after a sac fly from Ridge Gonsoulin plated Shawn Moy to extend the lead to 2-0.
The Owls (35-17) took the lead in the bottom of the second inning as three of the first four hitter reached with singles. Blake Wilson drove in the first run and Derek Fletcher's two-out two-run double gave the Owls a 3-2 lead after two complete innings of play.
WWU added two more runs in the last half of the third inning with Wilson driving in his second run of the game.
After being held hit-less in the third and fourth innings, the Pilots exploded for seven runs in the top of the fifth to take the lead. Curtis Beaudoin led off the inning with a double to deep center and Ridge Gonsoulin followed with an infield single to put runners at the corners with nobody out. Estrada came to the plate and didn't let the two errors that he made earlier in the game bother him and launched a three-run homer to tie the game at five.
Following a pitching change for WWU and two ground ball outs, the Pilots started a two-out rally. Chase Wentz single and Kyle Pearson walked to set up a two-run double from Michael Diffie to give the Pilots a 7-5 lead. On the next pitch Moy hit a two-run shot to cap off the seven-run inning.
WWU used four different pitchers in the fifth inning and a total of six for the game.
LSUS added one run in the ninth from an RBI-single from Gonsoulin that scored Diffie to give the no. 1 seed a 10-5 win.
Logan Norris (3-1) cruised the Pilots to the victory picking up the win in six solid innings out of the bullpen as he allowed no runs on three hits, one walk and seven strikeouts.
Zach Secoy (1-2) suffered the loss for the Owls as he allowed four earned runs, one walk and three hits in 2/3 of an inning.
The Pilots improve to 3-0 in the first round of the NAIA Opening Round and look to overcome their 0-2 record in the second game of the tournament as they meet the AUM Senators tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. at the AUM Baseball Complex. The Senators won their first round game 11-5 over the Union Bulldogs on Thursday.
