Pilots Win Championship With Slugfest Victory Over Crusaders
May 06, 2007
MOBILE, Ala-- After pulling out a pitching duel at 2:00 am Saturday morning to move on to the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Championship game, the LSU-Shreveport Pilots pulled out a slugfest 11-8 to topple the William Carey University Crusaders and win the 2007 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.One inning after the Crusaders took a 1-0 lead on a 2-out RBI double from Pat Burch, the Pilots answered in a big way with a 6-run 3rd inning. The damage started when the first 4 batters reached base. Bryan Cooksey and Bryan Stebbings singled, and Andrew Blubaugh drew a walk to load the bases for a 2-run Quinton Shamsabody single.
Following a pop out to the pitcher, Chris Frye continued the hit paraded with a run-scoring base hit to left. After a walk forced in a run, LSUS catcher Brent Lavallee put a cap on the score-fest with a 2-run single.
The Crusaders quickly made up for the porous inning, with 4 2-out tallies to pull within 1 in the top of the 4th. Burch struck again with 2 outs, delivering a 2-run single and 4 batters later, Pat Barnes delivered a 2-out 2-run single of his own to make it a ball game.
The victorious Pilots followed up their 6-run explosion with a 3-spot in the 6th to do most of their damage on the game. In that inning, the Pilots took advantage of a pair of Crusader errors and got RBIs from Colin Moro and Chris Frye to gain some breathing room.
William Carey pulled closer with a 2-run home run from David Trisler in the 7th and had a chance late to tie the game. LSUS called on Matt Clayman to close out the 11-8 ball game in the 9th inning, and the righty promptly allowed 3 straight singles to lead off the frame and load the bases with 0 outs. But, the All-GCAC pitcher settled down and got a strike out and double play ball to clinch the victory.
Although the Pilots won, the star of the day was William Carey’s Trisler, who finished 5-for-5 with 3 runs scored and his 2-run homer. Martin Roark and Steven Johnson added 3-hit efforts to help pace the Crusader attack that pounded out 19 hits. Pat Burch finished with a 2-for-5 performance and 3 2-out RBIs.
The Pilots used a balanced attack at the plate, as the 1-8 hitters all recorded a hit and, all but 1 drove in at least 1 run on the ball game. Shamsabody led the way in the RBI column with 3 on the afternoon, while Moro, Frye, Talley and Cooksey all delivered 2-hit performances at the plate. Frye and Lavallee finished with 2 RBIs apiece.
Paul Marlow picked up the win for the Pilots by going 3 innings out of the bullpen and striking out 3, with 2 runs allowed.
