A lot happens during a baseball game with 365 pitches.

But in the end, Augustana delivered more clutch hits and clutch pitches while upsetting top-seeded Pittsburg State 13-7 Sunday afternoon in the championship game of the Central Region sub-regional baseball tournament at Al Ortolani Field.

The fifth-seeded Vikings (45-14) beat the Gorillas for the second straight day to advance to the super regional starting Thursday at Central Missouri.

For the Gorillas (45-11), it’s a disappointing finish to an outstanding season when they set a school record for victories and swept the MIAA regular-season and postseason tournament championships.

“This team is pretty special,” PSU coach Brock Buckingham said. “This team might go down as one of the best to ever play here.”

The Vikings outhit the Gorillas 17-8, matching the second-most hits by a PSU opponent this season. Augustana’s first three hitters did much of the damage, combining for eight hits and nine runs batted in.

Leadoff batter Brandon Weigel went 5-for-6 with a single, three doubles, a solo home run and three RBI. Nate Soelter hit a three-run homer and a sacrifice fly, and Kobe Eikmeier launched a two-run homer among his two hits.

Eric Bacon hit a solo homer in the fourth, a run-scoring single in the fifth and a double in the eighth to lead the Gorillas’ offense. Cooper Wesslund had two singles, and Jadyn McNealy drove in two runs with a groundout and bases-loaded walk.

Dagen Brewer drove in a run with an eighth-inning groundout, ending his season with an NCAA Division II-record 107 RBI.

The Vikings scored in each of the first five innings to build an 8-4 lead. The Gorillas climbed within 8-6 with two runs in the sixth without putting the ball in play – five walks, a wild pitch and three strikeouts.

But Augustana delivered the knockout blow with five runs in the seventh on three walks, Weigel’s two-run double that bounced over the left-field fence, Soelter’s sacrifice fly and Eikmeier’s towering homer to left-center.

PSU starter Jackson Murry (2-1) and five relievers fanned three batters and walked seven.

The Gorillas received 11 walks, and four of them came around to score. By contrast, the Vikings scored six runs off their seven walks.

Augustana pitchers struck out nine batters. Mariano Gomez, the Vikings’ No. 1 starter and Northern Sun Conference pitcher of the year, threw 98 pitches in 3 1/3 innings of relief and had seven walks and six strikeouts. Two of his strikeouts ended PSU’s bases-loaded threats in the sixth and seventh innings, and the Gorillas also left the bases loaded in the ninth, stranding 12 runners in all.

The Vikings went 6-for-14 with runners in scoring position while PSU was 2-for-15. After Bacon’s leadoff homer to left-center in the fourth, the Gorillas hit only four baseballs to the outfield the rest of the game.

“That’s the story for the last two days,” Buckingham said. “We were chasing them. We could never tie it or never get the lead, and that’s not us.

“Hats off to them. They played really good. They pitched it really good, so they deserved to win.”

AUGUSTANA 10,
PSU 8

The Vikings tallied four runs in the top of the first inning and never relinquished the lead.

Jake Lundquist went 4-for-5, including a run-scoring single in the first and leadoff homer to left-center in the third. Winning pitcher Ryan Clementi (4-0) entered after seven batters in the first inning and picked a runner off third base to help extinguish a three-run inning. Closer Adam Diedrich went the final 3 2/3 innings for his eighth save.

Pittsburg State senior Dagen Brewer collected four hits, an intentional walk and was hit by a pitch in six trips to the plate and broke the NCAA Division II single-season record for runs batted in.

He tied the record of 104 by Central Oklahoma’s Jarrod McAlvain in 1997 with a line-drive single to left field in the first inning. He broke the record with an opposite-field homer to right in the sixth, and he singled home another run in the seventh.

Isaac Webb matched Brewer’s four hits with three singles and a double. Andrew Branson drove in three runs with a bases-loaded walk in the first inning, run-scoring single in the fifth and sacrifice fly in the eighth.

The Gorillas collected 15 hits but stranded 15 baserunners. Plus, they lost two runners on the basepaths and errors helped the Vikings during their four-run first and three-run fifth innings.

“It was too many mistakes,” Buckingham said. “We didn’t play a clean game. I did think we did battle at the plate. We had 15 hits, but we left 15 on, so we never really got a big hit.

“That’s baseball sometimes. The mistakes we had were big.”

Gorillas starter Ty Blecha (4-3) and six relievers combined to give up 11 hits with five strikeouts and five walks.

Pittsburg St. 000 132 010 – 7 8 1

Augustana 111 320 50x – 13 17 0

Jackson Murry, Preston Giltner (2), Cason Long (4), Ryan Leiker (7), Porter Starnes (7), Bradley Neill (8) and Grant Nottlemann; Joel Van De Stroet, Jack Sutton (6), Mariano Gomez (6), Cal Schmelzle (9) and Jake Lundquist. W—Van De Stroet 5-1. L—Murry 2-1. 2B—PSU: Eric Bacon, Nottlemann; AU: Brandon Weigel 3. HR—PSU: Bacon; AU: Weigel, Nate Soelter, Kobe Eikmeier.

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Saturday’s Game

Augustana 411 030 010 – 10 11 0

Pittsburg St. 300 111 110 – 8 15 2

Josiah Peterson, Ryan Clementi (1), Jadon Bast (5), Adan Diedrich (6) and Jake Lundquist; Ty Blecha, Ryan Leiker (2), Bradley Neill (3), Elijah Seitz (5), Ricardo Hernandez (5), Cooper Crouch (8), Porter Starnes (9) and Grant Nottlemann. W—Clementi 4-0. L—Blecha 4-3. Save—Diedrich (8). 2B—AU: Maddox Foss; PSU: Jadyn McNealy, Isaac Webb, Nottlemann, Cooper Wesslund. HR—AU: Brandon Weigel, Lundquist; PSU: Dagen Brewer.