Campbellsville, KY – The UC Baseball team secured their first Mid-South Conference Regular Season Championship since 2008 on Friday with a victory over the #21 ranked Tigers of Campbellsville University 3-2 at HIG Field. It is the fourth regular season championship for the Patriots since 2004. With the win, UC improves to 43-6 overall on the year and 13-1 in MSC play.
Josh Avila would get the nod for the start on the bump and he would not disappoint with his performance. Campbellsville would strike first though in the bottom of the second as David Montoya would double deep to left field, bringing Ty Housden in for the first run of the game, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
Cumberlands would respond in the third. After back-to-back singles from
Reed Spata and
Roberto Prado,
Raudy Martinez found a pitch on a 3-2 count that he could drive as he sent it sailing over the left-center field fence for his 13
th home run of the season, pushing the Patriots out front 3-1.
Avila would continue to work through the lineup of the Tigers, allowing just three hits from the bottom of the third through the bottom of the seventh as UC still held a 3-1 lead. In the eighth, it was Montoya again coming through for Campbellsville, this time with a RBI single driving in Marco Murillo to make it 3-2 Patriots.
Although
Nicholas Purpera would go down to get loose in the bullpen, Coach
Brad Shelton stuck with his starter who would punch out the side in the ninth 1-2-3 to earn the complete game win and secure the top seed in the Mid-South Conference Tournament for the Patriots.
Avila went nine innings in the victory allowing just two runs (one earned) on six hits and three walks while sitting four down on strikes. The only other extra base hit of the game came from the bat of
J.C. Santos, who went 1-2 in the game with a triple.
UC returns to action on Saturday, April 28
th at HIG Field in Campbellsville with the final two games of the regular season against the Tigers. First pitch is scheduled for 3 pm.
For the latest and most up-to-date information on University of the Cumberlands Athletics, please visit www.cumberlandspatriots.com. Follow us on Twitter - @UC_Patriots, Instagram - @UCPatriots, SnapChat - @UC_Patriots, YouTube – Cumberlands Patriots, and Facebook by searching University of the Cumberlands Athletics.