LSUS Pilots win NAIA Region XIII Baseball Tournament 05/11/03

(Pilots to host Super Regional)

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The LSUS Pilots took two one-run games from William Carey College Saturday to win the NAIA Region XIII Baseball Tournament. The Pilots move to the Super Regional Tournament this week. Their first opponent will be the Embry-Riddle (Daytona Beach, Fla.) Eagles, who won the Region XIV tournament. The day, time and location of that game have yet to be announced.

The Pilots rebounded from a 10-2 loss to William Carey College in the winners’ bracket semi-final game Friday afternoon, sending them to the losers’ bracket semi-final game against Faulkner University, a Montgomery, Ala., private school. The Pilots defeated Faulkner, 8-5, to advance to the championship series Saturday against Gulf Coast Athletic Conference foe William Carey. LSUS and William Carey each won two and lost one in their regular-season meetings.

The Pilots took a pitcher’s duel in the first championship game of the double-elimination tournament, besting the Crusaders, 2-1. The second championship game was a slugfest that took 11 innings to decide, with the Pilots coming out on top 10-9. The tournament was played at William Carey’s H. R. Morgan Field.

The Pilots take a 47-21 overall record to their first Super Regional game.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has two campuses, Daytona Beach and Prescott, Ariz., and bills itself as “the world’s leader in aviation and aerospace higher education.” The Eagles play in the Florida Sun Conference, which they won with a 17-4 conference record, and bring a 46-12 overall record to the Super Regional game against the Pilots. Embry-Riddle, the No. 1 seed in the Region XIV tournament, defeated Warner Southern College, 10-6, for the regional championship. The Warner Southern Runnin’ Royals, of Lake Wales, Fla., also play in the Florida Sun Conference.