Albany, Georgia-It was as quality a start to postseason play for the Edward Waters baseball squad as could be had as the #3 seeded Tigers matched up with #6 seed Lane in the opening matchup of the 2024 Cricket SIAC Baseball Championship. The Tigers were able to cruise to a convincing 12-5 victory over the Dragons on Thursday morning at the Albany State University West Campus Complex.
The Tigers (28-18) were blitzed early by Lane (20-24) in the top of the first inning, giving up the first four runs of the contest to fall behind early. However, as has been the case for a majority of the season, the Tigers offense was able to respond in kind, by posting six runs in the bottom half of the inning an never surrendering the lead again.
Anthony Roman opened the offensive floodgates for EWU with an RBI triple, RBI singles from
Hugo Schoening,
Leonel Garcia, and
Caden Hutchinson followed,
Erickson Matos had an RBI groundout, and
Ferante Cowart hit another Tiger RBI single to give them a 6-4 lead.
A Lane throwing error allowed Second Team All-SIAC second baseman
Dave Mitchum to score in the bottom of the second to pad the Tiger lead by a run, then in the bottom of the fourth, the Purple & Orange added two more runs.
Daquarius Thompkins had an RBI single, and
Torry Jones earned an RBI on a groundout, making it a 9-4 Edward Waters lead.
In the top of the seventh,
Erickson Matos connected on two-RBI double and
Ferante Cowart had an RBI groundout to put the contest away at 12-4. Lane in the top of the ninth inning was able to pull back one run in the top of the ninth inning, but Edward Waters was able to prevail to advance to the Winner's Bracket.
Mitchum, Schoening, and
Leonel Garcia had multi-hit contests for the Tigers, each post two hits, while
Erickson Matos had a game high three RBIs. Fellow Second Team All-SIAC selection
Anthony Bayyat had a complete game effort for the Tigers on the mound, earning the victory. Bayyat scattered 11 hits, allowed four earned runs, walked two, and struck out one.
Edward Waters will next matchup with the winner of the #2 Spring Hill/#7 Morehouse contest in a Winner's Bracket contest on Friday morning at 10:00am.
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