LAKELAND, Fla. – The ABAC Stallions won their first ever NAIA playoff game Tuesday night with a 12-2 blistering of the Central Methodist Eagles in the National Baseball Tournament Opening Round. ABAC, now 36-15 overall, will face Briar Cliff Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. After beating ABAC in the tourney opener 8-4 Monday night, the Eagles lost to top seed Southeastern Tuesday 6-2.
In Tuesday's big win, the Stallions got big hits, took advantage of CMU's mistakes and got a solid pitching performance from
Trypp Lumpkin. The junior left-hander pitched all seven innings, allowing only four hits to notch his fifth win of the year.
Offensively, ABAC grabbed an early 3-2 lead before breaking the game open in the fourth. A walk to
Chasin Cash, a double by
Harrison Childers and a walk to Quentin Rawls loaded the bases with two outs before
Cameron Campbell made the Eagles pay. The centerfielder roped a bases-clearing double into the rightfield corner for 6-2 lead. After a walk to Cris Walley,
Brayden Fordham singled Campbell in to grow the lead to five.
That would be more runs than Lumpkin would need but the Stallions added five more in the seventh to make it an early night.
Joe Fisher walked and
Dylan Davis singled before the Eagles recorded two quick outs. But that's also when CMU's pitching failed them as Rawls, Campbell, and Walley all walked with the bases loaded to add on three more runs. It got worse for the Eagles when Fordham's grounder to third was misplayed as Campbell and Rawls raced home for a 12-2 lead.
With the 10-run rule hanging in the balance, Central needed one run in the bottom of the inning to extend the game. But Lumpkin, who threw 135 pitches on the night, seemingly got stronger and struck out the last two batters to end the game.
ABAC jumped on the board first in the second inning as Davis blasted a home run to right, scoring Fisher who had singled. The Eagles struck back in the bottom of the frame with a pair of runs to tie the game at 2-2. The Stallions added a lone run in the third on a Fisher double that plated Walley.
