Baseball Downs Mary Washington
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – Shenandoah University will have two chances to make a return trip to the Division III Baseball National Championships after downing Mary Washington 10-5 Friday morning in the winner's bracket final of the Fayetteville Regional.
Shenandoah (37-8) will face either Mary Washington (28-13), Salisbury or LaGrange in the tournament championship Saturday at 1:00. Should the Hornets lose that game, the 'if-necessary' contest will be played at 4:30.
Salisbury faces LaGrange in the loser's bracket semis at 1:30 Friday with the winner of that game taking on UMW at 6 for the right to face SU in the championship.
As in its second game of the tournament, Shenandoah rallied from an early deficit Friday afternoon.
Mary Washington scored a pair of runs in the first off of SU starter Ben Hendrickson (4-1) before Shenandoah scored four of its own in the second.
Cory Nelson led off the frame with a single down the left-field line before Adam Delauter plated Nelson with a double over the first base bag.
Kevin Brashears and Jon Holcomb followed with RBI singles with Jesse Henry capping off the rally by driving in Holcomb with a groundout.
The Eagles retook the lead by scoring three runs on three hits and a Hornets error in the fourth; Shenandoah then seized the advantage for good with a three-run sixth.
Greg Van Sickler, who had reached on an infield error, scored the eventual game winning run on a Nelson double into the left-center gap.
Henderickson went the distance for the victors, allowing five runs (four earned) on 11 hits and one walk. He struck out four.
Shenandoah banged out double-digit hits for the third straight game of the regional with Holcomb, Jesse Henry and Mike Smith getting three each. Henry had the final big hit with a two-run HR in the eighth.
