Pilots fall to Blazers in GCAC Championship Game 5-1
May 10, 2004
The LSUS Pilots (37-25) managed to fight their way through the losers bracket of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference and advanced to the championship game versus the Belhaven College Blazers. The Blazers defeated the Pilots 8-6 in round two of the tournament which sent LSUS to the losers bracket and into a matchup versus the #1 seed William Carey College. The Pilots defeated William carey 4-3 and were forced to watch the afternoon game before suiting up again at 7:00pm to take on Belhaven for the second time in the tournament.The Pilots earned a birth into the championship game when they defeated the Blazers 9-6 Friday night. LSUS was in the drivers seat as they were able to sit and watch the first game Saturday afternoon as their opponent was the winner of the Belhaven versus Mobile game. Belhaven managed to comeback from a 5-4 deficit in the bottom of the ninth and scored two runs to advance to the finals and eliminated the University of Mobile Rams.
The Pilots sent all their all-time wins leader Gene Stevens to the mound looking to capture their first ever GCAC Title. The Blazers managed to get runners on second and third with no outs in the top of the first. After a pop out and a strikeout, Stevens was one pitch away from escaping from the early jam. A ground ball to the Pilot third baseman was fielded cleanly but then an errant throw over the first basemans head allowed the Blazers to score two runs and gain the early momemtum.
The Pilots threatened early on the bases but could ot manage to scratch any runs until senior first baseman Patrick Jolley hit a solo homerun to cut the Blazers lead to 2-1. Belhaven however tacked on a single run in the 5th and 2 more in the sixth when Ewing hit a 2-run homer over the right center field wall to extend the Blazers lead to 5-1.
Pilot senior pitcher Levi Montoya came in and threw 3.2 innings of shut-out baseball while collecting 7 strikeouts, but the Pilots just could not get the offense going on this day. The Pilots fell by a final score of 5-1 which concluded their 2004 season.
