Game Two: #2 Concordia 7, #3 Oswego State 6

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Concordia University baseball team of Austin, Texas opened the NCAA Division III tournament with a dramatic victory Friday afternoon.

Graduate student Zach Seigrist (Beaumont, Texas) hit a two-out home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Tornados a 7-6 victory over Oswego State at Alumni Park in the Bridgewater Regional.

Second-seeded Concordia (34-11) will face top-seeded Endicott College (39-4) in a winner's bracket game Saturday at noon.

Endicott is ranked third in the American Baseball Coaches Association poll and fourth in the D3baseball.com poll while Concordia is No. 19 in the ABCA rankings and No. 24 in D3.baseball.com's poll.

Third-seeded Oswego State (27-14) will meet host and fourth-seeded Bridgewater State University at 8:30 a.m. in an elimination game with the winner advancingto play at 3:30 p.m.

Seigrist, the leadoff hitter in the lineup, delivered the home run to left field after the first two batters were retired. It was the ninth homer of the season for Seigrist, who had been hitless on the day.

Concordia had opened a 5-1 lead in the first inning, but the Lakers rallied to tie the game at 6-6 by the seventh inning.

Oswewgo went up, 1-0, in the top of the first on an RBI bunt single by sophomore Daniel Winchester (New York City, N.Y.), but Concordia scored five in the bottom of the inning.

Junior Colby Christian (Porter, Texas) had a two-run single through the left side, junior Logan Smith (Georgetown, Texas) had an RBI single with two outs and an error on a ball hit by sophomore Carson Riley (Liberty Hill, Texas) brought in a pair of unearned runs.

The Lakers made it 5-2 in the second on a homer to left by junior Matt Carner (Baldwinsville, N.Y.), his third of the season.

Concordia took a 6-2 lead in the fourth when a groundout by senior Kalen Clark (Liberty Hill, Texas) scored Riley, who had singled.

Oswego made it 6-4 in the fifth on RBI singles by junior Trey McGowan (Bluepoint, N.Y.) and junior Emil Sander (Skaneateles, N.Y.) and got within 6-5 in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Carner, scoring sophomore Dylan Rosenberg (Roslyn Heights, N.Y.), who had doubled.

The game was even in the seventh on an RBI infield hit by Sander.

Junior Ralph Wallace III (Haslet, Texas), who retired two batters in the ninth, improved to 3-1 with the win. He relieved graduate student Otto Franz (Austin, Texas), who worked 8 1/3 innings. Franz set the program's all-time strikeout lead in the win.

Senior Joel Hayner (Clifton Park, N.Y.) was the losing pitcher and is 3-3 after allowing four earned runs and six hits with eight strikeouts.