Montgomery, Alabama-Edward Waters certainly had their mettle tested in their Tyson Foods Black College World Series Elimination Game contest against #3 seed Bluefield State on Friday morning. Trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the 7th, Caden Hutchinson hit a towering three-run homer that sparked a 9-6, come-from-behind over the Big Blue to advance to the NCAA Division II Bracket Championship Game.

EWU (26-23, 16-13 SIAC) fired the opening salvo in the bottom of the first on Daquarius Thompkins' RBI single that brought home Hugo Schoening to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

The Purple & Orange got on the board once again in the bottom of the second courtesy of Payton Shubert's two-run homer over the right field wall to increase the advantage to 3-0. Bluefield State (25-24-1) returned the favor in the top of the 3rd with three runs scored to knot things up at 3-3.

Advancing to the top of the fifth inning, the Big Blue took the lead by capitalizing on a couple of major Tiger miscues to plate two runs and take a 5-3 advantage. BSU added another run in the top of the seventh to double up EWU at 6-3.

After four straight scoreless innings for Edward Waters, the squad finally responded in the bottom half of the seventh. Hugo Schoening's RBI single cut the lead down to two, then Hutchinson stepped up and on a 3-2 pitch, connected on a monsterous three-run shot over the left field wall that allowed the Tigers to seize control once again at 7-6.

Edward Waters picked up two critical insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on a RBI singles from Shubert and Leonel Garcia to extend the lead to 9-6. 

Senior reliever Darius Blasingane, who came in relief in the fifth inning, was able to close things out with a key strikeout in the top of the ninth to send Edward Waters to their second consecutive TFBCWS division championship game.

Despite five critical fielding errors, the Tigers were able to overcome those with 14 big hits in the contest. Hutchinson was the man of the day at the plate for the Tigers, going 3-for-3 with a homerun, two RBI's, two runs scored, and two stolen bases. Leonel Garcia also had a solid contest for EWU, going 4-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored. Schoening finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, while Shubert finished 2-for-4 with a homer, three RBI's and two runs scored.

Darius Blasingane picked up the victory in relief, going 5.0 innings, allowing just two hits, one run scored, and struck out six. Starter Will Valenti went 4.0, allowed four hits, four earned runs, one walk, and one strikeout in a no-decision.

Edward Waters advances to the NCAA Division II Bracket Championship Game where they will face SIAC foe and #1 seed Albany State at 5:00pm on Friday afternoon.

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