LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – Louisiana Christian weathered an eighth-inning go-ahead rally by Marian and got a walk-off, pitch-hit two-run home run by Gavin Vordick Monday to win 4-3 in the Lawrenceville Bracket of the NAIA Baseball Opening Round.
The Wildcats, ranked 24th nationally and seeded second in the regional, advanced to a 2 p.m. (CT) winner’s bracket battle with host Georgia Gwinnett, ranked fourth nationally and seeded first in the regional.
Marian, No. 23 nationally and the third seed at the regional, will play today at 10 a.m. in an elimination game and if it survives, will face elimination again in the third and final game today.
LCU (36-13) got a solo homer in the second inning by Matthew Cody, but Marion tied the game in the fourth on an RBI double. The Wildcats quickly regained the lead on Harrison Waxley’s double scoring Drake Aldridge, who had singled to open the bottom of the fourth.
With the Wildcats three outs from advancing, the Knights found their offense. A lead-off walk was sacrificed over to second, and then a RBI single and a RBI double on back-to-back hits gave Marian its first lead of the game at 3-2 before reliever Owen Simoneaux came on to put out the fire, retiring the two batters he faced.
Caleb Brown led off the bottom of the ninth by dropping a base hit into left-center. Waxley laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Brown into scoring position. Vordick was called on to pinch hit and took a 2-2 pitch over the wall in left, into the LCU bullpen for the walk-off home run.
Vordick’s blast was his fourth home run of the season.
TENNESSEE WESLEYAN 7, LSUA 0: In Kingsport, Tenn., the third-seeded Generals (33-17) managed just two hits and struck out 10 times against the second-seeded winners (41-14).
LSUA will meet fifth-seeded William Woods at 10 a.m. (CT) in an elimination game. The winner will play again tomorrow at 5 in an elimination contest against top-seeded Webber International, upset Monday by No. 4 Indiana Wesleyan 10-6.