5/25/2008 - BASEBALL In 15 Innings, Lipscomb Wins A-Sun Championship

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Championship Coverage

Caleb Joseph earns MVP honors for A-Sun Baseball Championship, recording seven RBI in five games.
Courtesy ASunPhotos.com

DeLAND, Fla. – In the longest A-Sun Championship game ever played and the first title game to be decided in extra innings, Lipscomb rallied from two runs down in the bottom of the 15th inning to defeat Gardner-Webb 10-9 and win the 2008 Atlantic Sun Baseball Championship Presented by Progress Energy from Stetson’s Melching Field at Conrad Park.

After Gardner-Webb (29-30) scored twice in the top half of the 15th, Branden Cadavid started Lipscomb’s rally with a single up the middle. Ben Williams followed with his third hit of the day, a single advancing Cadavid to second. Jo Jo Gutierrez advanced both runners with a sacrifice. Allen Bolden cut the margin to one, singling through the right side plating Cadavid. After a pitching change, Championship MVP Caleb Joseph leveled the match with a ground out to score Williams. Consecutive walks loaded the bases for Shane Simpkins. Simpkins, who entered the day hitting only .167 with the bases loaded, fell behind 0-2 before pulling a base hit through the right side scoring Bolden and setting off a delirious celebration beyond first base.

“We battled all day,” Simpkins said. “As a senior I wanted that opportunity. The first pitch I thought I had a good piece of it but it was a foul ball. That last pitch was probably a ball but it went through the hole.”

For the first time all week, Lipscomb (32-28) failed to score first as the Runnin’ Bulldogs scored three times in the first inning as starting pitcher Paul Piennette failed to record an out. The lead would grow to 4-0 before Lipscomb scored six times in the bottom of the sixth. Gutierrez, who at the time was hitting only .125 for the week, capped off the rally with a single past a drawn-in infield to score two and give the Bisons their first lead of the day at 6-4. The six-run rally was the largest single-inning total in an A-sun Championship game since Belmont plated eight against Jacksonville on May 23, 2007.

The lead would remain unchanged until Gardner-Webb scored twice in the top of the ninth. Kurt Fulginiti singled home Bubbie Spake and Aaron Miller successfully executed a squeeze bunt to score Daniel Cook.

Gardner-Webb had an earlier chance to claim victory after scoring a run in the top of the 13th inning, but Lipscomb responded with a Bolden single which scored Williams.

Mike Dunn, the sixth pitcher used by Lipscomb, picked up the win, recording the final two outs of the top of the 15th. Jonathan Ban suffered the loss.

“It felt like a game of cat and mouse,” Championship MVP Joseph said. “That does a lot to you mentally. You feel like you have a good lead and things happen. We fought back and we fought back and we fought back. Gardner-Webb has an unbelievable team. They gave us a run for our money. I don’t think anybody had an idea who was going to win it. We just got lucky with a ground ball through the four hole.”

Lipscomb advances to its first NCAA Tournament. The Bisons will find out their destination at 12:30 pm on Monday. The selection show will air on ESPN.

Notes: Lipscomb become the first champion from outside the state of Florida since SE Louisiana in 1994…Lipscomb is the first top seed to capture the title since UCF in 2002…Improved to 5-0 against Gardner-Webb this year; prior, Lipscomb had never defeated a team five times in a season since moving up to Division I…Became the fifth team since 1981, to win the A-Sun Championship after never having won a game previously at the championship joining FIU in 1991; SE Louisiana in 1992; UCF in 1993 and Jacksonville in 1999 …The Bisons are the first school from Tennessee to capture the A-Sun title …The longest A-Sun Championship prior to today was 12 innings, achieved four times…the game fell one inning shy of the longest game in Division One this year; six games lasted 16 innings…The game was the longest in terms of innings of any tournament game in the country; the previous long came from the Horizon League, UW-Milwaukee defeated Cleveland State 10-7 in 14 innings…Lipscomb wins for just the fourth time in 22 games in which it trailed after five innings…This game was the second extra-inning contest of the championship, the first time a championship featured multiple extra-inning games since 1984…There were nine hit batters in the contest… The winner of all 11 games has scored at least six runs, a first for the 14 championship that played at least 10 games (1980, 1983, 1996-present)…This championship marked the final A-Sun Championship for Lipscomb Athletic Director Dr. Steve Potts, he will assume the role of Senior Associate Director of Athletics at Pepperdine University …Time of the game: four hours and 57 minutes.

The Atlantic Sun Conference is a 12-member league committed to Building Winners for Life, with a focus on academic and athletic integrity and a balance between the two for the student-athlete, and maintaining a high level of sportsmanship. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun encompasses six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun consists of some of the most dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Gardner-Webb University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.