Soon after the Chattanooga State baseball team lost 15-3 in its first NJCAA World Series game -- Saturday against Hutchinson (Kan.) in Grand Junction, Colo. -- Tennessee Wesleyan was eliminated from its first NAIA World Series.
The Bulldogs lost 10-3 to third-seeded California Baptist, which had lost 8-0 to No. 6 Oklahoma City in Friday's last opening-round game. But the first team eliminated from the tournament in Lewiston, Idaho, was the last team standing last year. Lubbock Christian, the 2009 champion, lost 7-6 to Lee University on Friday and then fell 3-2 Saturday morning against eighth seed Belhaven.
Lee (50-11) plays Monday at 10 p.m. EDT against either Point Loma Nazarene (39-18), which sent Belhaven to the losers bracket, or top-seeded host Lewis-Clark State (47-3). Lewis-Clark played Point Loma in the last game Saturday night.
Wesleyan ended its season at 46-18 after taking a 1-0 lead in the second inning, when Max Loveland doubled, stole second and scored on Brad Pippa's sacrifice fly. Pippa homered in the fifth, but by then Cal Baptist (49-14) was ahead 7-1.
Pippa was 2-for-3, Loveland was 3-for-4 with an RBI and Ryan Santos was 2-for-4 for the Bulldogs, but their only other hit was a Jonathan Smith single. Brian Sharp was 4-for-5 with two doubles and three RBIs and Sharif Othman had two hits and two RBIs for the Lancers. Ryan Douglas scored three runs.
In Colorado, meanwhile, Chattanooga State trailed 5-0 before ever batting in a World Series, as starting pitcher Max Aeschlimann failed to finish the first inning. The Tigers (37-15), who were outhit 17-4, face College of Florida (37-14) in the losers bracket at noon EDT today. The Manatee, Fla., team lost 13-5 to San Jacinto (Texas) North.
Hutchinson's Jamell Cervantez began the opening game with a bunt hit and stole second, and Andrew Dixon walked. Ryan Mayfield, who would wind up 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs, merely moved the runners over with a groundout in his first at-bat, but Mace Krol hit a two-run single and took second on a throwing error, then stole third and scored on a Luke Acosta groundout. Then Shaun Hoover doubled in a run, David Longmore singled him in and stole second, Dan Klein singled in a run and Matthew Williams doubled.
Josh Coppinger relieved Aeschlimann and walked Cervantez but got Dixon on a fielder's choice to third base for the final out.
Chatt State's Gabe Herman opened the bottom of the first with a walk, moved to third on groundouts by Michael Maxwell and Andy Marinelli and scored on an Adam Whitlock single, and the Tigers closed to within 5-3 in the second inning when J.D. Pullen walked with one out, stole second and scored on Taylor Eaves' single and Eaves moved up on a balk and scored on Isaac Davenport's single.
Dylan Coleman singled in the third inning, but that was the Tigers' last hit off Shawn Lewick. Hutchinson (38-22) scored single runs in the third and fifth innings and ended the game with an eight-run sixth.