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Tournament Central
ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team starts the Mountain East Conference Tournament 7:00 p.m. Thursday versus West Liberty at Epling Stadium in Beckley, West Virginia.
LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: The Mountain East Conference will provide live statistics throughout each game of the tournament.
Video: Live streaming video will also be provided for every game of the tournament through Sunday's championship.
To access the live coverage, follow the links at the top of the page or click
here.
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
The MEC Tournament is double elimination. With a win, Concord would return to Epling Stadium 7:00 p.m. Friday to face the winner of Charleston and Notre Dame while a loss would bring CU back 3:30 p.m. Friday against the winner of Shepherd and West Virginia State.
RECORDS
CU is 26-21 this season and posted a MEC mark of 18-14.
The Hilltoppers finished the regular season at 20-26 overall and 17-15 in the conference.
MOUNTAIN LION NOTES
Concord came within one strike of not making the MEC Tournament as it was down 6-5 to UVa.-Wise with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and an 0-2 count on junior outfielder
Evan Webb.
In a must-win game for the Mountain Lions, Webb eventually drew a walk to move the game's tying run, sophomore outfielder
Adam Linkous, to second base. Linkous scored on the next pitch of the game, a single to center field by junior infielder
Trevor Wiersma.
After falling behind 7-6 in the top of the eighth, CU rallied for two more runs in the bottom of the frame. Linkous collected his second walk-off hit of the season to lift Concord to an 8-7 win.
The Blacksburg, Virginia native had a walk-off bunt single in the Glenville State series. In total, CU has had three walk-off wins this season. A key contributor in all three wins has been sophomore outfielder Conner Boothe who has either scored a game-tying run or winning run as a pinch runner.
On Sunday, the Lindside, West Virginia native tied the game 7-7 as he scored from first base on an error in the bottom of the eighth.
Wiersma enters the MEC Tournament as the reigning conference player of the week after hitting .500 (8-for-16) and slugging nearly 1.200 last week in five games for the Mountain Lions. The Vancouver, British Columbia native collected his second career multi-home run game at UVa.-Wise Friday night.
Linkous has been as equally impressive at the plate for Concord down the stretch as he has a nine-game hitting streak and has tallied multi-hit games in each of the last three contests including a career-best four hits in game two Sunday.
CU's bullpen was also an integral factor into the Mountain Lions making their 21
st straight conference tournament appearance.
Senior pitcher
Reece Edwards and sophomore pitcher
Bryson Booher have only allowed two combined earned runs in their last eight appearances together which covers 17.1 innings.
On Sunday, Edwards became just the fifth pitcher in program history to appear in at least 50 games on the mound.
Also in the Concord record books, senior infielder
Chad Frazier moved to within one run of becoming the third player in program history to score 200 or more runs.
On a weekend when the Mountain Lions needed to win at least two games versus UVa.-Wise to clinch a berth in the conference postseason, sophomore pitcher
Trent Abernathy was clutch in game two of the series.
The Harrisonburg, Virginia native tossed his third complete game of the season that included seven strikeouts. In his final six innings of work, Abernathy scattered three hits in a 15-3 win for CU that improved his record to 5-0.
Additionally, the right-hander is the only pitcher in the conference to have won at least five games this season without a loss.
Earlier this season, Concord swept West Liberty as the Mountain Lions won 3-0 and 6-5.
Junior pitcher
Troy Beckner tossed his fourth career complete-game shutout as he struck out a season-high nine and scattered four hits in the seven-inning performance.
The 6-5 win for CU in the nightcap was its first of three walk-off wins on the year. Trailing 5-0 entering the sixth inning, the Mountain Lions plated three runs in the frame before scoring three runs in the seventh including a two-run, bases loaded single from junior infielder
Brett Simmons to win.
The winning run in the game was scored by Boothe.
In the last two MEC Tournaments, the Mountain Lions have been eliminated in two games including falling 8-7 two seasons to West Liberty. In that particular game, Concord collected 16 hits including two from Wiersma and three by senior catcher
Paul Williams.
WEST LIBERTY AT A GLANCE
The Hilltoppers had to win two games in its final series of the season versus Wheeling Jesuit in order to qualify for the MEC Tournament.
Parker Dyson, who took the loss in CU's 3-0 regular season win, is 5-3 this season with the fifth-best ERA in the MEC of 2.52 Dyson has piled up 79 strikeouts in 60 innings.
Coby Eckstein is hitting .400 entering the conference postseason and has hit 10 home runs on the season, including a three-run homer versus Concord earlier this season.
Of West Liberty's 20 wins, 16 came away from home as the Hilltoppers went 4-12 at home.
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