BATON ROUGE, La. – Southeastern Louisiana senior
Domenick Carlini and sophomore
Josh Green combined to hold Utah Valley to three hits, as the Lions survived with a 3-2 victory over the Wolverines in an elimination game at the Baton Regional Sunday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium.
The Lions (40-20) advance to another elimination game on Monday, as they will face the loser of Sunday night's winner's bracket game between LSU and Rice. Times for Monday's games are yet to be announced. Utah Valley (37-23), the WAC Tournament champions, was eliminated from its first-ever NCAA Tournament with the loss.
The win was Southeastern's third-ever in the NCAA Tournament as a Division I member. Making its fourth-ever NCAA Regional appearance, SLU previously earned regional victories over Bryant (2014) and Hawaii (1992). Southeastern has reached the 40-win milestone for the second straight season after winning a single-game school record.
Carlini (8-2), a native of Nesbit, Mississippi, allowed just two hits in six innings of work, holding UVU to two runs (one earned). Green backed him up, facing the minimum in three innings of shutout relief on the way to his fourth save of 2016. Carlini, who gave up just one hit in 6.1 innings in a Southland Conference Tournament win over McNeese State, has been a postseason warrior for the Lions.
"I didn't feel like I had everything I wanted today," Carlini said. "But I just tried to battle and give my chance a win. The team made a lot of good plays behind me and I just wanted to do whatever I could to help us win a baseball game."
Carlini and Green were backed up by excellent defensive plays throughout the game. Junior
Jacob Seward, sophomore
Drew Avans and junior
Derrick Mount all made excellent plays. To Southeastern head coach
Matt Riser the defense was the difference in the game. Riser was pleased how his team bounced back from committing four errors in Sunday's earlier 7-2 loss to Rice.
"If you look at the first game, we didn't make the plays," Riser said. "We felt like if we play defense, we can win. We booted a couple of balls against Rice and we made up for it with some big plays defensively in the second game."
Southeastern collected five hits in the contest off the three Wolverine pitchers it faced. Senior catcher
Chris Eades led the Lions with three hits, while sophomore Avans drove in a run for the Lions.
Jackson Cofer (6-5) took the hard luck loss on the mound for Utah Valley, scattering four hits and allowing three runs (two earned) in 7.1 innings of work. Spencer Gothberg's fifth home run of the season highlighted the Wolverines' offensive output.
Southeastern would produce all the offense it would need in the top of the first inning against Cofer. Southland Conference Freshman of the Year
Brennan Breaud generated the first run with his speed. After a one-out single, the Norco, Louisiana native stole second and eventually scored all the way from second on a wild pitch.
Southland Conference Player of the Year
Jameson Fisher walked and scored on an RBI single by Avans, who would later score when Wolverine third baseman Jordan Schlehuber booted a grounder by Lion junior
Ryan Byers to give SLU a 3-0 lead.
Utah Valley threatened Carlini for the first time in the bottom of the second inning. Craig Brinkeroff led off the inning with a single and Jake Atkinson drew a two-out walk to bring the tying run to the plate. However, Carlini struck out Justin Erlandson to keep the Wolverines off the board and maintain the three-run advantage.
Utah Valley got on the board with an unearned run in the bottom of the third inning. Trevor Howell drew a one-out walk and later scored when Mount made an error on what would've been the inning's final out, cutting the Lion advantage to 3-1.
Cofer retired 10 Lions in a row after the shaky start, allowing the Wolverines to pull closer. Spencer Gothberg lined a home run over the left centerfield fence with one out in the fourth to cut the SLU lead to 3-2.
From there, Carlini and Green combined to face the minimum the rest of the way. In the sixth, a diving catch by Seward on a line drive by Brinkeroff helped Carlini sit UVU down in order. Mount made a nice charging play on a bunt by Justin Erlandson for the final out in the seventh inning.
Schleuber beat out an infield single to lead off the eighth inning for the Wolverines, but Green forced Trevor Howell to ground into a 6-3 double play, then retired Zac Willis to maintain the SLU lead. In the ninth, Green quickly sat the Wolverines down in order to secure the victory.
All of Southeastern's Regional games can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU 90.9 FM, online and through the TuneIn Radio app (search for KSLU). Fans can also keep up with the game through live statistics or by following SLUathletics on Twitter.
Every game of the Baton Rouge Regional will be carried live on ESPN3, ESPN's live multi-screen sports network. It is accessible online at
www.WatchESPN.com, and on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN and ESPN apps. Games can also be streamed via Amazon Fire TV and the Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Links for audio, video and stats are available on the baseball schedule page at
www.LionSports.net. For all the latest updates on further schedule changes, visit
www.LionSports.net or follow Southeastern Athletics on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/sluathletics.
Baton Rouge Regional
Friday, June 3
Game 1 – No. 1 LSU 7, Utah Valley 1
Sunday, June 5
Game 2 – Rice 7, Southeastern Louisiana 2 (Game Resumes in Top 7th – Suspended Saturday by rain)
Game 3 – Southeastern Louisiana 3, Utah Valley 2 (Utah Valley eliminated)
Game 4 – Rice vs. LSU, 6:34 p.m.
Monday, June 6
Game 5 – Southeastern Louisiana vs. Game 4 loser, 2 p.m.
Game 6 – Game 5 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 7 p.m.
