Concord Advances to MEC Championship Game with 8-6 Victory over Alderson Broaddus

BECKLEY, W.Va. -  The Concord University baseball team rallied from an early 4-1 deficit before holding off a late Alderson Broaddus charge to secure a spot in the Mountain East Conference Championship.

The Mountain Lions (18-21) defeated AB (19-20), 8-6, Saturday night at Epling Stadium to advance to their first MEC Championship. It is the first conference championship game appearance for Concord since 2013.

Concord faces West Virginia State 1:00 p.m. Sunday with CU needing just one win to sew up a conference title. WVSU will need to defeat the Mountain Lions twice.

Alderson Broaddus jumped out to a 4-1 lead through four innings.

A night after scoring five runs in the fifth against Charleston, CU broke through with another critical rally in the fifth Saturday. Junior infielder Brandon Bayne reached on a bunt with two outs before freshman infielder Zack Saryeldin found himself aboard with an infield single. Junior infielder Anthony Stehlin drew one of his two walks of the night to load the bases.

With the sacks full, junior infielder Evan Antonellis drove a triple into the left center field gap to tie the game—his only hit of the night

Two more runs crossed home in the sixth as CU took advantage of two Alderson Broaddus errors to regain its first lead of the game since the second inning, 6-4. Junior catcher Chance Davis came through with one of his two RBI on the night with a sacrifice fly to add to the Concord lead in the seventh.

Saryeldin drove in a second run in the frame with a two-out single as the Mountain Lions took their biggest lead of the game, 8-4.

AB had an answer in the bottom of the seventh, though, with a two-run double. Out of the bullpen, freshman pitcher Justyn Hudson left two runners in scoring position with back-to-back strikeouts to end the rally.

The Battlers threatened again in the ninth by putting the tying run in scoring position with one out. However, Stehlin closed the game out on the mound by inducing a popup to shortstop and a ground ball to the new CU shortstop, junior infielder Trevor Wimmer.

Davis and Saryeldin each had two hits and two RBI in the game. Antonellis drove in three runs with his bases-clearing triple in the fifth.

Freshman utility Eddie Blake (3-2) tossed 6.1 innings as he gave up four earned runs and tied his career high with six strikeouts. Before AB's two-run seventh, Blake sat down nine consecutive Battlers in the middle innings. Stehlin picked up his fifth save of the season in six tries.