Box Score
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Concord University baseball team overcame an early deficit and took a two-run lead into the ninth inning, but a late Winston-Salem State rally led to the Rams' 7-5 victory over the Mountain Lions Friday at Gene Hooks Field in the 2013 NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Tournament.
The loss eliminates Concord from tournament competition and ends the Mountain Lions' season with an overall record of 36-20. The 2013 West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament champions set a school-record for wins in a single season.
Concord was led in the loss with home runs from junior first baseman
Joey Miller, senior designated hitter
Jacob Mays and sophomore third baseman
Ryan Johnston. Miller's home run was his 15th of the season.
Miller finished the game 2-for-4 while Johnston's home run, his 11th of the year, was a two-run shot. Freshman
Joe Camp produced a clutch pinch-hit single that scored sophomore second baseman
Jerrod Groves, who tripled before him, for the then go-ahead run in the seventh inning.
Sophomore pitcher
Kevin Mack got the start for Concord and threw 4.2 innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits. Junior pitcher
Chris Baker relieved Mack in the fifth inning and went on to finish the game allowing three runs on four hits in the defeat. Baker closes the year with an 8-2 record.
Travis Moore led off the game with a single and proceeded to steal second and third base before scoring off of a sacrifice fly from German Reyes to give Winston-Salem the early 1-0 lead. Winston-State threatened again in the second inning, but Mack worked out of a two-on, two-out jam by inducing an inning-ending fly out to keep the deficit at just one run.
Miller tied the game in the second inning when he launched his second home run in as many games over the left field fence. The Rams responded with back-to-back hits in the third inning with the second being a run-scoring double by Aaron Jones to put WSSU back on top 2-1.
With their season hanging in the balance, the Mountain Lions received a jolt of life from Mays in the third inning when he took WSSU's Jordan Carlton's pitch deep over the right field wall to tie the game at 2-2. The home run was Mays' sixth of the year.
Winston-Salem then pulled ahead 4-2 with runs in the fourth and fifth inning forcing Mack out of the game for Baker. Once again Concord stormed back as Mays led off the sixth inning by drawing a walk, setting the table for Johnston who unleashed Concord's third home run of the afternoon to even the score at 4-4.
The Mountain Lions took their first lead of the game in the seventh with Groves' triple to center followed by Camp's timely single to put CU up 5-4.
However, Winston-Salem State managed pull off a comeback of its own by loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth and allowing Rafael Gonzalez to deliver a three-run double with two outs that gave the Rams a two-run lead heading into the bottom of the ninth where Concord was retired in order to end the game and CU's season.
