SUGAR LAND, Texas – Forced to extra innings for the second-straight day, Southeastern Louisiana came up short in the Southland Conference Tournament, 6-5, against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 10 innings Friday at Constellation Field.
Southeastern (42-17) led twice, but A&M-Corpus Christi (25-25) rallied to defeat the Lions for the second time in three days and eliminate the defending tournament champion.
Carson Crites, who enjoyed his second three-hit game of the tournament, got the Lion offense going early with a one-out single in the first. He advanced to second on a single by
Daniel Midyett and then scored when A&M-Corpus Christi's attempt to turn a double play ended with an errant throw to first.
Ryan Byers put Southeastern up, 3-0, with his fourth home run of the season.
Kennon Menard, who had walked leading off the inning, scored on the two-out, two-run shot to left field.
Crites scored again in the third, doubling to left to open the inning.
Kevin Carr moved him to third with a single through the right side and
Brett Hoffman picked up the RBI on a sacrifice bunt.
The Islander offense broke through in the fourth, scoring three runs off Southeastern starting pitcher
Kyle Cedotal. They added an unearned run in the sixth to tie the game, 4-4.
Southeastern pulled back ahead in the eighth. Islander reliever Jacob Dorris, working for a third-straight day, hit Carr with a pitch to open up the inning and then walked
Brett Hoffman on four-consecutive pitches. After a pair of strikeouts,
Chris Eades beat out an infield single to second to load the bases. Byers worked a walk to bring home Carr with the go-ahead run.
A&M-Corpus Christi answered with a run in the bottom of the inning to tie the game once again, 5-5. Jordan Lee led off the inning with a double to left, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a one-out sacrifice fly to deep center.
Lion reliever
Kade Granier (4-2) stranded the potential winning run in both the eighth and ninth, but A&M-Corpus Christi chased him from the game with back-to-back, one-out singles in the 10th. Islander center fielder Tyler Ware greeted Domenick Carlini with a base hit through the right side to drive in the winning run.
Nolan Holland (2-1), the third of three pitchers used by the Islanders, earned the win with 2.1 innings of scoreless relief. Granier, the second of three Southeastern hurlers, suffered the loss.
Crites (3-for-5) and Byers (2-for-3) led the Lions at the plate. Byers drove in 3 runs and Crites scored a pair.
The 16 NCAA Regional sites will be announced Sunday at 7:30 p.m. (CT) on the College World Series' Twitter account, @NCAACWS.
Southeastern will learn its postseason fate Monday when the field of 64 is revealed in a one-hour telecast at 11 a.m. (CT) on ESPNU.
A&M-Corpus Christi 6, Southeastern La. 5 (May 22, 2015 at Sugar Land, Texas)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Southeastern La............ 121 000 010 0 - 5 8 4 (42-17)
A&M-Corpus Christi.... 000 301 010 1 - 6 10 1 (25-25)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: Southeastern La. - Cedotal, Kyle; Granier, Kade (8); Carlini, Domenick (10) and Eades, Chris. A&M-Corpus Christi – Skapura, Devin; Dorris, Jacob (4); Holland, Nolan (8) and Hermanson, Lukas.
Win-Holland, Nolan (2-1) Loss-Granier, Kade (4-2) T-2:58
HR SLU - Byers, Ryan (4).
Weather: 74, cloudy, wind ENE 9
