Mayday at the VA: SSU BB crushes four homers, eight extra base hits total in 15-4 run-rule of Brescia (Ky.)

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- In the last week of the regular season, Shawnee State's performance at the plate offensively, which led to a sweep of the Rio Grande RedStorm to seal the No. 3 seed in the River States Conference Tournament, helped the Bears rocket up from a .315 batting average to a .322 mark as a team.

Shawnee State's batting average certainly took another sizeable leap upward Thursday evening.

Continuing its torrid pace in a big way from last week at the plate, a much lengther rain delay than the one the Bears sat through just six days earlier in its opening game of its series against Rio Grande not only failed to damper the bats, but only strengthened Shawnee State's resolve at the plate, as the Bears crushed four home runs, added in four doubles to boot and got a complete game seven-hitter from Shawnee State starting pitcher Ricardo Medrano in a complete effort on all ends from SSU in a 15-4 win in seven innings to begin River States Conference Baseball Championship Tournament action at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe.

Game Summary/Potential significance of win

The Bears (28-14), whose bats have been white-hot over the past five games with 52 runs on 55 hits in victories over Georgetown and Rio Grande, kept rolling Thursday as Shawnee State went 13-of-32 (.406) at the plate in Thursday's win.

In addition to the eight extra base hits, seven different Shawnee State players -- Nolan Tressler, Eli Jones, Diego Mendoza, Mason Reid, Jace Parnin, Wyatt Haupt and Tyler Lund -- all reached base via a hit while Tressler, Mendoza, Reid, Parnin and Haupt all enjoyed multi-hit performances in the win. Mendoza, Parnin and Haupt each went yard within the opening three innings of work alone while Reid added in a fifth-inning blast to conclude matters.

Thursday's victory against Brescia (23-18) has the Shawnee State baseball program sitting at 10 consecutive victories -- just two off of matching the program record of 12 straight set just last season. Two more wins of a straight variety by the group would allow Shawnee State to seal a berth in the River States Conference Championship Series, while three straight would win the River States Conference Championship, set a new program record with 13 straight triumphs and send the Bears to its first NAIA National Postseason berth in 14 years if the Bears can run it up over the course of the weekend.

Bats don't go astray despite lengthy rain delay

After getting going around the scheduled start time of 3 p.m., Shawnee State and Brescia were only able to make it to the bottom half of the first inning before inclement weather forced a rain delay that would last for well over four-and-a-half hours following an Eli Jones single that put one SSU runner on with one gone in the opening inning and the game at a scoreless tie early on in the going.

When play resumed for good around the 7:45 p.m. hour, it didn't take long for Shawnee State to dent the scoreboard.

In fact, it only took the opening pitch following the long rain delay to provide said dent.

Up as the three-hole hitter in the lineup and with an opportunity to make an early impact, Shawnee State catcher Diego Mendoza wasted no time taking advantage of his opportunity -- crushing a ball straight over the left field fence to immediately put the Bears ahead by a 2-0 margin on his team-leading 11th home run of the year.

That one hit proved to set the tone for the remainder of the ballgame.

Back up in the second inning with an opportunity to do more damage, Wyatt Haupt didn't play around, either -- as the freshman, who has quickly established himself as a power threat, torched his own home run to left center field to lead off the bottom of the second inning with a solo home run.

By the second inning, Shawnee State already led by a 3-0 margin -- but there was more to come.

Continuing his red-hot hitting from last week, Jace Parnin wanted to get in on the home run parade. So after a one-out ground rule double by Mason Reid, Parnin did just that -- with his own two-run homer to left center field. The third homer over a three-inning stretch for Shawnee State put the Bears up by a 5-0 count, and essentially left Brescia with next-to-no chance for any slip ups the rest of the way.

In the fifth inning, Brescia attempted a rally by scoring a run on a one-out sacrifice fly RBI by Gavin Hubener and a two-out RBI single from the Bearcats' Artem Logvinov, cutting Shawnee State's lead to a 5-2 count.

The Bears, however, responded by essentially eliminating all hope of a Bearcat rally, as a walk by Jones was followed by an RBI double to center field by Mendoza, which Jones came all the way around to score from first on. Reid then cleared the bases with his own two-run jack to left field, giving Shawnee State an 8-2 lead that the Bears ultimately built to a 10-2 count after five innings as a hit batter and walks to Zach Gaspar and Tyler Lund led to an RBI single by Nolan Tressler and an error on the same play.

With a substantial lead intact already, Shawnee State essentially finalized matters in the sixth as a single by Parnin to center and another walk by Gaspar was followed by back-to-back-to-back RBI-producing hits, with Haupt's two-RBI single to center field, an RBI double to center field by Lund, and a two-RBI single by Tressler concluding the scoring for the Bears in a dominating performance from start to finish.

Additional

At the plate, Parnin (3-for-3, home run, double, walk, two RBI, two runs scored) led Shawnee State again with yet another incredible performance -- as the junior has now gone 13-for-13 with three home runs, four doubles, nine RBI and 11 runs scored over the last four games and has reached base in each of his last 17 plate appearances total between the three-game Rio Grande series to end the regular season and Thursday's contest against Brescia.

Mendoza (2-for-4, home run, double, three RBI, run scored), Haupt (2-for-4, home run, three RBI, two runs scored), Reid (2-for-4, home run, double, two RBI, two runs scored) and Tressler (2-for-5, three RBI) all joined the multi-hit parade while Lund (1-for-3, walk, RBI, run scored) and Jones (1-for-4, walk, two runs scored) also contributed to Shawnee State's success at the plate through their hits in Thursday evening's victory.

With Thursday's win, No. 3-seeded Shawnee State will play No. 2-seeded Indiana-Southeast at 12:30 p.m. Friday afternoon at VA Memorial Stadium. The winner advances to a Saturday, May 3 contest against either No. 1 Oakland City or No. 4 Indiana-Kokomo for the right to advance to Sunday's River States Conference Championship Series, while the loser will have to play a second game on Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. against No. 5 Midway to stave off elimination in the double elimination championship tournament.