Williamsburg, KY- The sixth-ranked Cumberlands Patriots survive and advance to the NAIA World Series after taking down RV Columbia Cougars 8-6. Charlie Muniz also broke an NAIA Opening Round homerun record while tying school records. Head Coach Brad Shelton notched his 1,000^th career win to get the Pats to the World Series for the first time in program history.

Charlie Muniz continued his hot streak going 2-4 with both hits leaving the ballpark for five RBIs. Max Harper also went 2-2 with a solo home run. Ben Snapp notched another triple to go along with Ryan Shavers double.

Garrett DeClue got the start and tallied 10 strikeouts in his 6.0 innings of work. Chipper Korbacher came in relief and picked up his third win of the season, as he pitched 1.0 innings. Cesar Avila closes the game out for the Pats, pitching 2.0 innings. Avila notched the final strikeout of the game to pick up his ninth save of the season.

 

Here is todays pitching staff pic.twitter.com/rUd0VLy544

— UC Baseball (@PatsBaseballUC) May 18, 2023

After DeClue struck out the side to start the game, the Pats notched two runs to take the early lead. Raphy Almanzar got walked to lead off the at-bat. Muniz followed with a bomb over the left field fence for the 2-0 lead.

The Cougars scored one run in both the third and fourth to tie the game at 2-2. In the bottom half of the fourth, Harper leads off with a solo homer to right-center to regain the lead.

In the fifth, Columbia tied the game at 3-3, then took their first lead in top of the sixth after scoring two runs. Then Cumberlands gained momentum in the seventh. With one out, Shavers got walked.

Then two batters later, Almanzar singled toward the shortstop. With two outs and two runners on, Muniz stepped to the plate, found a pitch he liked, and drove it over the center field fence to take the 6-5 lead. With that homer, Muniz set a new NAIA record of home runs in an NAIA Opening Round. Also, with that hit, he tied Jason Ellis for most hits in a single season at 93; Ellis has been sitting at the top of that list since 2002.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Pats added two more insurance runs to take an 8-5 lead. Harper got walked to lead off, and Luis Alvarez came in to run for him. Alvarez would advance to second on a groundout. Then Snapp notched his second triple of the week as Alvarez came home to score. A few pitches later, Snapp would score on a wild pitch to make it an 8-5 game.

The Cougars got one run across, but Avila notched the final out, and Cumberlands held on to win 8-6. 

 

11??6 for the final out pic.twitter.com/7ZBy9fiiAh

— UC Baseball (@PatsBaseballUC) May 18, 2023

Let's here from Charlie Muniz:

 

Let's hear from @charliemuniz77 pic.twitter.com/Eeir3Wureu

— UC Baseball (@PatsBaseballUC) May 18, 2023

Here is Caden Petrey and Max Harper:

 

Let's hear from Max Harper and Caden Petrey pic.twitter.com/mQrabIoZ1I

— UC Baseball (@PatsBaseballUC) May 18, 2023

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