Game 1 Box | Game 2 Box
Updated Season Stats
ABILENE, Texas – Two masterful pitching performances and clutch hitting helped McMurry advance to the American Southwest Conference Championship Round Saturday as the home team, facing elimination after a Friday loss, rallied to beat Louisiana College 13-9 in game one and followed with a 10-0 shutout to end the series.
Arnold Toombs rescued Cody Curry in game one after the Wildcats went up 6-0 and went the distance for the win and Dakota Smith threw a 4-hit shutout to end Louisiana College's season in game two.
McMurry will face Mississippi College at Driggers Field Friday at 7 p.m. in its first game of the double-elimination tournament. McMurry as the No. 1 West Division seed will play host to the four-team field consisting of UT-Tyler (No. 1 East seed), Mississippi College (No. 2 East seed), and Concordia-Texas (No. 2 West seed).
Below is a summary of each game Saturday.
Game 1 (McMurry 13 Louisiana College 9) | Box Score
Facing elimination after a Friday loss, McMurry was down 6-0 in the first inning before rallying past Louisiana College for a 13-9 victory at Driggers Field to force a third and deciding game. Arnold Toombs pitch all nine innings in relief to pick up the win after McMurry starter Cody Curry surrendered six runs (four earned) in the bottom of the first inning without recording an out.
Toombs went on to allow just three more Wildcat runs (two earned), walked only one and struck out six while letting the McMurry offense get on a roll posting a 4-run second inning, a 5-run sixth and a 3-run ninth to help come from behind.
Steven Yurchick and Derek David each had RBI singles in the second inning and Stephen Derrick had a 2-run double to narrow the deficit to 6-4 in favor of the Wildcats. Then, Louisiana struck back with a run in the bottom of the second and added another in the bottom of the fourth to increase the advantage to 8-4.
However, a Lance Jones RBI single in the fifth and a 5-run sixth inning highlighted by a leadoff homer from Yurchick put McMurry up 10-5. Yurchick's homer helped McMurry pass the ASC team record for home runs in a season with 65. East Texas Baptist hit 64 as a team in 2005; McMurry had 69 team home runs by the end of the day Saturday. Derrick added an RBI single in the fifth, West Franco had a pinch-hit RBI single and Jones drove in two with another single to cap the comeback inning.
Louisiana College managed just one more run in the bottom of the seventh inning to make the score 10-9 in favor of McMurry, however, Derrick sealed the deal in the top of the ninth with a 3-run shot to right field for his ninth homer of the season. McMurry was playing as the visitors despite the Abilene venue due to conference rules in the playoff series.
Toombs' win pushed him to 4-1 on the season while the Wildcats' Chris Robeau was tabbed with the loss.
Game 2 (McMurry 10 Louisiana College 0) | Box Score
McMurry carried over the momentum from Saturday's game one comeback victory and eliminated Louisiana College with a 10-0 victory at Driggers Field in game two to advance to the championship round of the American Southwest Conference Tournament. Dakota Smith hurled a 4-hit shutout and Derek David hit home runs No. 24 & 25 on the season to help McMurry advance to the championship round for the second-straight year.
David became the ASC's single-season record holder for RBI after driving in four runs in the series finale. The senior third baseman has 69 RBI through Saturday and passed Sul Ross' Brad Booze, who had 65 RBI in 1998.
With two more long balls on his already record-setting season, he's now tied for the second-best single-season home run total in NCAA Division III history. To become No. 1, he'll have a long way to go, as the division III record is 36 home runs.
Smith allowed just two hits and one walk through the first 7.2 where he faced the minimum of 23 Wildcat hitters. During that stretch he sat down 12 batters in a row before Anthony Benoit and Chris Magee had back-to-back singles. However, LC couldn't put together a run in the eighth and David's 2-run homer in the bottom of the eighth gave McMurry the victory by run rule. A 10-run rule is in effect during the entire ASC Championship Tournament series after seven innings.
Weston Franco, who received his first start since March 29 after suffering finger and leg injuries hit his ninth homer of the year, a 2-run shot in the third inning, which was part of a 5-run inning for McMurry. David hit his other 2-run home run in the fourth.
Steven Yurchick was 2 for 4 with a RBI, George Whitten was 2 for 5 with an RBI, and Stephen Derrick & Nate Love each drove in a run for McMurry's offense that had struggled the previous two weeks heading into the tournament.
Louisiana College, who had used five pitchers in each of the first two games of the series were forced to start closer Barrett Morgan in game three. Morgan had a 1.35 ERA heading into the final game, however, McMurry touched him up in just his second start of the season for five runs on six hits in three innings. Morgan picked up the loss to move to 1-2 for the season.
The Wildcats season ends with a 17-26 record and it marks the second straight season that McMurry ended LC's year. McMurry swept the best of three series last year and although the Wildcats took game one this season, they were unable to advance to the next round.
McMurry enters into the championship round with a 26-17 record.
