April 21, 2007
The SU Pirates baseball team was the first team to punch its ticket to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship Tournament on Saturday (Apr. 21) by completing the sweep of DePauw University in the SCAC Divisional Playoffs in Millington, TN.
Southwestern, the third seed from the West Division, picked up an 8-7 win over the Tigers to win the best of three series. The Pirates had to win in the bottom of the ninth after squandering a 7-3 lead late in the game.
The Tigers scored first, plating a run thanks to a walk and a single in the top of the second inning. The Bucs then exploded in the third. SU got an RBI single from John Wooten (Columbus, TX/Columbus HS), an RBI single from Richard Falcone (Houston, TX/Westside HS) and a two-run double off the bat of Brad Culling (Albuquerque, NM/St. Pius HS). The Pirates also got a pair of runs on an error by the DU second baseman for a 6-1 lead through three innings.
The Tigers managed to cut the lead to three with two runs in the fourth on four hits. Culling drove a ball over the left field fence with one out in the sixth inning to push the Southwestern lead to 7-3.
DePauw got two runs in the eighth and two more in the ninth to tie the game at 7-7, setting up SU for a win in the last at bat. Culling led the ninth off by getting hit by a pitch. Mark Noggle (Houston, TX/Clear Lake HS) moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt followed by Eric Gonzales (Austin, TX/Bowie HS) drawing a walk. With one out and men on first and second, first-year Matt Clark (Spring, TX/Klein HS) drove a single to right center to score Culling from second for the 8-7 win.
Culling had two hits in three at-bats for SU, a double and a home run, driving in three runs and scoring twice. In the two games against DePauw, Culling batted .714 (5-7), drove in three and scored three and had a 1.571 slugging percentage.
Sophomore Wes Willis (Austin, TX/Austin HS) started for the Bucs, lasted seven innings and earned a no-decision. He gave up eight hits and four earned runs, striking out six and walking three. Matt Gruetzner (Bastrop, TX/Basatrop HS) earned the win with 0.2 innings of work. The sophomore is now 2-1 on the season.
The Pirates improved their season record to 19-22 while dropping DePauw to 23-16.
Southwestern will play again in the SCAC Championship Tournament that is hosted by the Pirates at Rockwell Field in Georgetown, TX beginning on Friday (Apr. 27).
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