Tennessee Wesleyan is 2019 NAIA baseball champion


Baseball laying with homeplate on dirt field for game. baseball tile diamond / Getty Images
Baseball laying with homeplate on dirt field for game. baseball tile diamond / Getty Images

Tennessee Wesleyan University became a two-time baseball national champion Friday night with a 6-2 win over St. Thomas in the final game of the 2019 Avista NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. It ended about 12:45 a.m. EDT Saturday.

The No. 1-seeded Bulldogs (56-10) scored in the top of the first inning and led the rest of the way, stretching their advantage to 5-0 before Joey Thompson hit a solo home run in the fifth for the sixth-seeded Bobcats (49-15) from Miami Gardens, Florida.

TWU's Cole Bellair pitched into the seventh, when Chris Garabedian homered for the second time in two games against the Bulldogs and Daniel Mondejar followed a one-out Thompson walk with a single. Jerry Ochoa relieved Bellair and got a line-out double play, then pitched a one-hit eighth. Irving Martin took care of the ninth.

TWU second baseman Bryce Giles was voted MVP of the NAIA World Series and also won the Charles Berry Hustle Award, and Bellair, catcher Shamoy Christopher, center fielder Tyler Reichenborn and left fielder Braden Mosley joined him on the all-tournament team. Reichenborn won the Gold Glove Award.

As they had throughout the season, the Bulldogs drew inspiration from 8-year-old Neyland Pickel from Athens, who is battling cancer for the third time. He threw the ceremonial first pitch before the championship game.

"We played for each other. We played for everybody in the stands. We played for our coaching staff (headed by Billy Berry). Most importantly, we played for Neyland," Giles said in a release on the NAIA website. "That was the biggest thing."

Mosley batted in all the Bulldogs' runs when they edged St. Thomas 3-2 earlier in the double-elimination tournament and had the first two RBIs Friday night - with a single in the first inning after Dan Fry's single, Giles' sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch and with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly plating Jhosmel Rodriquez in the third.

Pinch runner Adrian Marquez made it 3-0 on a wild pickoff throw in the fourth, and then Aloysius Cruz finished by drawing a walk and scoring on a double by Rodriquez, who was 2-for-4. An inning later, Mosley and Anthony Williams were hit by pitches with one out and advanced on a double steal, and Max Draijer lined a sacrifice fly to left field to get Mosley home.

Reichenborn tripled with two outs in the sixth and scored on Fry's bobbled grounder, the fourth error of the game for St. Thomas, which had eliminated No. 2 seed Science & Arts of Oklahoma 10-2 on Thursday night with a seven-run third inning. Garabedian, Mondejar and pitcher Orlando Rodriguez represented the Bobcats on the all-tournament team.

TWU also won the NAIA World Series in 2012.

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