LEWISTON, Idaho – The Embry-Riddle Eagles defeated the Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs, 5-2 on Jan. 29 in Montgomery, Ala. The result on Friday afternoon at the 56th Annual Avista-NAIA World Series was completely different as the fourth-seeded Bulldogs had no trouble with the fifth-seeded Eagles, emerging with a 17-3 win. Embry-Riddle falls to the loser's bracket and will play at 9 a.m. (PDT) against Sun Conference member South Carolina Beaufort who fell 3-2 to Rogers State earlier on Friday. The Sand Sharks and Eagles split four games this season.
The Bulldogs threatened right away in the contest, starting the game with a walk and a perfectly executed hit-and-run to put runners on the corners without any outs. Paulencu got a perfect double play ball from the three-hole hitter, Stephen Branca, but an Eagle error allowed a run to score and every Bulldog to be safe on the bases, giving TWC a 1-0 lead. A single through the right side plated another Bulldog run, pushing the lead to 2-0 before Paulencu surrendered a single back up the middle that chased the third run of the game to home plate. A chopper hit by Jordan Guida looked like the first out of the inning, but
Chris Page slipped and fell when he fielded the ball and the Bulldogs had bases loaded with no outs. Paulencu induced another ground ball that Page fielded, but instead of stepping on first, Page errantly threw home and another Bulldog run scored for a 4-0 TWC advantage. A sacrifice fly gave Tennessee Wesleyan a 5-0 lead, but Paulencu was able to finally get out of the frame by getting to ground balls to the left side of the infield to send ERAU into the first-base dugout.
The Bulldogs sent Jeremy Fitzgerald to the mound to face the Eagles, and the junior effectively shut down the ERAU offense in the first, allowing a bloop single by
Jeff Lemon before striking out Page to end the frame.
The second inning began much like the first with the first two Bulldog batters reaching safely thanks to back-to-back singles. However, the Eagle defense got Paulencu out of the jam with a pair of nice plays, the first a snagged line drive by Lemon at third, and the second, an inning-ending groundout that
Ben Kline and Page combined for to give ERAU a little bit of momentum.
Embry-Riddle used that momentum to get base hits from both
Ian MacGeorge and
Frankie Arias to put runners on second and third with no outs in the bottom of the second inning.
Mike Gragilla collected the first Eagle RBI of the day with a sacrifice fly to left, bringing in MacGeorge from third. Second baseman
JT Warmoth took the first pitch he saw to right-center, scoring Arias from second, and cutting the TWC lead to 5-2.
Greg Smith kept ERAU's rally alive with a base knock down the left field line, allowing Warmoth to easily score from second, and decreasing the deficit by another run.
Drew Levi shifted the momentum right back to TWC's side with a leadoff home run in the third, the first long ball Paulencu had surrendered in 2012. Lemon made two nice plays for the first two outs in the third, and then Warmoth put ERAU back in the dugout with a diving stop at second before throwing to first to retire the Bulldogs.
Fitzgerald gave up a leadoff single to Kline in the home-half of the third, but a strikeout and then ground ball double play squashed any rally hopes the Eagles might have had.
TWC went quietly in the fourth, managing just one base runner in the frame against Paulencu. But, Fitzgerald returned the favor in the final half of the fourth, giving up a two-out single to Warmoth before getting
Adam Cellini to groundout to third for the final out of the frame.
Paulencu's day came to an end after allowing a two-run home run to Dale Ricketts in the fifth, as Tennessee Wesleyan ballooned their lead to 8-3.
Chad Modomo, the Eagle pitcher who faced TWC earlier in the season, relieved Paulencu with no outs in the fifth.
An error, stolen base and another error allowed the ninth TWC run to touch home, but Kline made two nice plays at short to strand a TWC runner, and keep the deficit at six runs.
Page's rough day continued in the Eagle fifth when he grounded into an inning-ending double play with runners at first and second.
Taylor Oldham recorded his third hit of the contest to start the sixth, unfortunately for Modomo and the Eagles the hit was a solo home run over the wall in left field, the third Bulldog bomb of the afternoon.
Fitzgerald mowed down the Eagles in order in the bottom of the sixth inning, pushing the game to the final stages with Tennessee Wesleyan leading, 10-3.
A one-out double by Anthony Boix started a chain of events that caused the end of Modomo's outing, including the fifth Eagle error of the game and an intentional walk to load the bases before
Robbie Ratliff entered for Embry-Riddle. Ratliff's first pitch was in the dirt, allowing Boix to slide home and give his team an 11-3 advantage. Two more runs would score for the Bulldogs before Ratliff could get out of the inning, but the damage was done as TWC took a 13-3 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
The Eagles put runners on the corners with two outs in their part of the seventh inning, but Fitzgerald got out of the jam by getting Kline to ground into a fielder's choice while
Tyler Robbins was retired at second base.
More of the same in the eighth for the visitors on the scoreboard, as Stephen Branca slammed his 17th homer of the year, a three-run shot, and Jake Stone followed with a home run of his own to give the Bulldogs a 17-3 lead.
The Eagles were held scoreless in the final two frames, and the game ended on a fly out off the bat of Kline.
The 17 runs allowed by the Eagles were the most since a 19-0 loss to Lewis-Clark State in the 2008 World Series. The six errors were the most Embry-Riddle had committed since Feb. 25 against Edward Waters.
Fitzgerald improved to 11-0 in 2012, while Paulencu fell to 8-3 with the loss. Along with Ratliff and Modomo, Antwan Browan and
Eric Green made relief appearances for the Eagles.
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