Box Score
BECKLEY, W. Va. – The Concord University baseball team will compete for its second West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in three seasons after its 6-3 victory over Fairmont State Friday night at Epling Stadium.
Concord plays West Virginia State 1:00 p.m. Saturday at Epling Stadium for the WVIAC title and an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. The game will be a rematch of the 2011 WVIAC Championship.
CU's victory improved the Mountain Lions' record to 35-18 on the season, tying Concord's 2008 squad for the most wins in a single season in school history.
Junior pitcher
Tyler Coyle (7-4) was dominant in a complete game victory. He surrendered just seven hits with all three of his runs allowed coming in the fifth inning. Coyle struck out seven batters, just two off of his season-high.
Concord's starting pitchers have given up just five runs in 24.1 innings pitched during the WVIAC Tournament.
The Mountain Lions' offense was paced by sophomore second baseman
Jerrod Groves and junior outfielder
Bret Blevins. Both players recorded two hits and one RBI each with Blevins also scoring twice and Groves accounting for Concord's only extra-base hit of the day; a double in the ninth inning.
Sophomore third baseman
Ryan Johnston (1-for-3), junior first baseman
Joey Miller (1-for-4) and sophomore catcher
T.J. Brockway all drove in runs as well.
CU entered the third inning still hitless off of FSU starter John Fox, but Johnston led off the frame with a single. Senior shortstop
Josh Wenger proceeded to reach base via an error leading to an RBI-hit from Blevins to give Concord a 1-0 lead.
Groves and Brockway kept the Mountain Lions' big inning going with consecutive RBI-hits, giving Concord a 3-0 lead after three and a half innings.
Concord added two more runs in the fifth inning off of a sacrifice fly from Johnston and a run-scoring single from Miller. No stranger to comebacks, FSU rallied back with three runs in the bottom half of the inning to trim Concord's lead to just two runs at 5-3.
However, the Mountain Lions got one run back in the sixth when Blevins scored on a wild pitch to make it a 6-3 game which was more than enough for Coyle, who ended the game by throwing four consecutive shutout innings to secure Concord's spot in the championship game.
