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LWC Baseball fulfills World Series expectations Lindsey Wilson is the No. 8-seed in the 10-team Avista-NAIA World Series. The Blue Raiders face The Master's (Calif.) at 2pmCT on Friday, May 27, at Harris Field, 500 8th Ave, Lewiston, ID. By Chris Wells Expectations were high for Lindsey Wilson baseball entering the 2016 season. The Blue Raiders started the season ranked seventh in the NAIA preseason baseball poll after reaching the program's first Avista-NAIA World Series in 2015. Lindsey Wilson returned a plethora of key components that aided in the run to Lewiston, Idaho, a year ago and infused a tremendous recruiting class with those veterans to fuel the expectations of another run to the World Series. Coach Jonathan Burton had the recipe for another successful season, and what he hoped would be a deeper run into the World Series. The season began with great promise. A four-game split at second-ranked and defending national runner-up Saint Thomas (Fla.) and a three-game sweep at perennial power and No. 11-ranked LSU-Shreveport. The Blue Raiders continued to surge taking two games from World Series participant and No. 1 seed Faulkner (Ala.) in mid-February. In all, Lindsey Wilson completed February winners of 13 of its first 17 games. "We had a terrific start to the season," Burton said. "But we lost our focus and our edginess somewhere along the way that really hurt us during the middle part of our schedule." While the Blue Raiders shared the Mid-South Conference regular-season title, they struggled through mid-week games and a pair of weekend series in the MSC that ultimately led to a 33-20 regular-season record. One of those weekend struggles came at Campbellsville (Ky.) in early April. Lindsey Wilson dropped all three games during the weekend, including scoring just one run in each of the first two games of the series. The three-game sweep started a string of five straight losses that dropped the Blue Raiders from No. 10 in the NAIA to nearly out of the poll. "That stretch cost us a lot of things," Burton said. "We were no longer in the driver's seat in our conference and, nationally, it went a long way in knocking us out of consideration for a top seed in one of the opening rounds -- which was one of our goals coming into the season." The Blue Raiders rebounded from the early April swoon to win six of seven heading into the final weekend of the regular season. Again, inconsistent play reared its ugly head in a weekend series at St. Catharine (Ky.). After Scott Sebald pitched a complete-game gem in a 2-0 win in the series opener, the Blue Raiders dropped the last two games and was forced to share the regular-season title with Campbellsville. "That was a really disappointing weekend," Burton said. "You have to give credit to St. Catharine for playing well, but we didn't do the things that championship teams do and it cost us an outright regular-season title." Lindsey Wilson began postseason play with a sweep of Cumberlands (Ky.) in the Mid-South Conference Tournament's Opening Round Series to earn a trip to the tournament's final site. Sebald was again masterful in a complete-game shutout of Cumberland (Tenn.) in the first game of the four-team, double-elimination conference tournament. But Campbellsville handed Lindsey Wilson losses in the winner's bracket finals and again in the championship game to make the Blue Raiders wait for an at-large spot in the national opening round. "We were nervous about getting an at-large bid," Burton said. "I knew we had played a difficult schedule, but there were a number of upsets in the conference tournaments and at-large spots were limited." On selection day, Lindsey Wilson did in fact receive one of 14 at-large bids into the 46-team field and were sent to the Lawrenceville Bracket -- hosted by top-ranked Georgia Gwinnett -- as the No. 3 seed. The Blue Raiders struggled out of the gates in Lawrenceville with an 8-4 loss to second-seeded Indiana-Southeast -- a third loss of the season to the Grenadiers. Lindsey Wilson did not lose again in the tournament. The Blue Raiders began a span of five-games in 48 hours with a 2-1 win over Olivet Nazarene (Ill.). That same day, Lindsey Wilson staved off elimination again with an 8-4 win over British Columbia. "Obviously, when you are staring elimination in the face, every game is big," Burton said. "I think the British Columbia game was huge for our offensive confidence. It was a real shot in the arm." The British Columbia win set up a rematch of the first game of the Lawrenceville Bracket. Lindsey Wilson scored in six different innings en route to a 15-3 win over Indiana-Southeast. The win was Lindsey Wilson's 40th of the season -- the fourth time in five seasons the Blue Raiders have won at least 40 games during the season. With three elimination-game wins in their rear-view mirror, the Blue Raiders turned to their attention to top-seeded Georgia Gwinnett. The Grizzlies entered the championship game with a 57-4 record and winners of 15 straight games. Lindsey Wilson used a seven-run second inning and a complete-game effort from pitcher Daniel Ferrell to force an if-necessary championship game the next day. With an unfavorable forecast, that included 80-percnt chance of heavy rains, approaching the greater-Atlanta area, Lindsey Wilson and Georgia Gwinnett were back on the field less than 15 hours after the first championship game ended. "We just wanted to decide a champion on the field," Burton said of the possibility of not getting to play the game due to the incoming rain. "No one wants to ever back into a championship." After winning the first championship game, Lindsey Wilson would have reached the World Series if the if-necessary game could not be played. At 7:40 a.m. CT, Sebald sent a first-pitch fastball towards the plate in the decisive game. The Grizzlies struck first with two runs in the top of the first inning and one more in the fourth to take a 3-0 lead. Jan Carlos Ortiz scored the first Lindsey Wilson run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Harper in the bottom of the fourth to trim the deficit to 3-1. Lindsey Wilson tacked on a second run in the sixth inning as Victor Nazario's double chased home Harper. The game remained 3-2 entering the final inning. Harper opened the bottom of the ninth with a double and his pinch runner, Caleb Ratzman, scored on Nazario's blistering single up the middle to tie the game at 3-3. After loading the bases and a force out at the plate, Will Solomon -- who began the ninth inning with an 8-0 record and four saves -- uncorked a wild pitch that allowed pinch runner Ray Gonzalez to score the winning run. "I was so happy for our kids and the way they fought back," Burton said. "I was equally disappointed for Georgia Gwinnett. They have a terrific team and I know what that feels like, to have your season come to an abrupt halt. "This was a program win and I couldn't be more elated for this group of players that have worked so hard all season," Burton said. "To beat a team, with the quality of Georgia Gwinnett twice, speaks volumes about these seniors and even those players who came before and created a foundation of winning. They deserve to enjoy this moment." This story was posted on 2016-05-25 11:58:49
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