SIAC Spring Sports Championships—Day Four
April 21, 2007
Baseball
SIAC Baseball Championship: Stillman 9, Albany State 7
TUSCALOOSA, Ala— There was no room for mixed feelings. Just one year removed from a facing one another in the same tournament final, Stillman and Albany State finally had its chance to settle who the best baseball team in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference was.
Using effective starting pitching and timely offense, Stillman defeated Albany State 9-7 in Saturday afternoon’s tournament championship, giving Stillman its first conference baseball title in school history.
Winning pitcher Joseph Woodley was virtually lights-out for Stillman early own. The sophomore right-hander from Jasper, Ala. carried a no-hitter through 5 1/3 innings. Woodley (4-3) pitched 6 2/3 innings and allowed three hits and only one earned one in his only tournament appearance.
“I thought Woodley was tremendous for us today,” Crawford said. “He was ill in the hospital two days ago and lost a lot of fluids, but yet he was able to get back and get us to where we needed to be.
He’s to be commended on his efforts for what he did today.”
“I just wanted to come out and focus,” Woodley said. “I all of my teammates have been battling all week and I just wanted to do my part to help us win this tournament.”
Stillman (26-15) won all four of its tournament games defeating: Clark Atlanta, Paine and Albany State twice, respectively. The loss drops Albany State’s overall record to (37-15) overall. The Golden Rams finished the tournament (3-2) overall.
Feeding off Woodley’s quick first two innings of work, Stillman got the game’s first runs in bottom half of the second. After Nathan Moncrief was hit-by-a-pitch to lead off the inning, Josh Massey then sacrificed him to second base. Two batters later, Sean Blair singled to left-center, scoring Moncrief from second. After a Michael Lewis walk, Marcus Whitfield banged a double down the leftfield line, scoring both runners on the play. Stillman led 3-0 after two.
Pitching with comfortable run support throughout, Woodley was able to manage control of the game until the top of the seventh inning. After adding a run in the sixth, Albany then put up two more runs on unforced errors in the seventh inning, cutting Stillman’s lead to 9-3 and prompting Crawford to go to his bullpen for the final two frames.
After pitching a flawless eighth inning, reliever Chris Murphy quickly found himself in a jam in the ninth. After Albany State loaded the bases with no outs, Crawford turned to freshman Deronta Fowler to finish the game, but Albany State would not go away easily.
After Fowler issued a bases loaded walk, two more runs would score on a Massey fielding error from an attempted double-play put-out at first base. After a wild pitch scored another run, Fowler managed to induce the final batter into a pop-fly to the shortstop.
Whitfield was 2-for-5 in the final game with two RBIs and one run scored. Stillman’s semifinal hero, David Holcombe, finished the game 2-for-5 with one RBI. Albany’s Undre Smith went 2-for-4 with two runs and one RBI. While Barnell Stewart was 1-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs.
Stillman’s Chase Wilson was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Performer and Pitcher. Lewis and Whitfield were also named to the All-Tournament Team, while Crawford was selected as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Coach.
Albany State’s Alex Wyche and Willie Watkins were also selected to the All-Tournament team.
5th Round Loser’s Bracket Game: Albany State 6, Paine 3
TUSCALOOSA, Ala—Albany State was able to defeat Paine 6-3 for the second straight day to earn a spot in Saturday’s finale. Albany’s Darren Jenkins was 2-for-4 with four RBIs and two runs scored in the game. Albany found itself quickly down 3-0 to its Eastern Division foe’s after the first inning. But starting pitcher Demario Cash was unphased by the early three spot, managing to complete the game without yielding another run.
Cash allowed seven hits and only one earned run in his appearance. The elimination dropped Paine to (30-21) overall, posting a (2-2) record during tournament play.
Softball
SIAC Softball Championship: Albany State 9, Miles 0
TUSACALOOSA, Ala—Albany State’s Mindy Mager loves pitching in the big games. Her assignment on Saturday afternoon was perhaps her biggest yet.
Mager pitched a complete game two hitter in Saturday’s Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference final, to help her team claim a 9-0 victory over Miles, and the 2007 conference tournament crown.
Mager was virtually flawless in her five innings of work. Hits by Miles in the second and third innings were hardly enough for the Lady Golden Bears to spark-up a rally against the junior right-hander.
Mager, the tournament’s Most Valuable Performer, retired the game’s final seven batters as the game was called after the fifth inning due to the nine run deferential.
Albany State (29-30) reclaimed its stake as the league best team, winning the conference title for the first time since 2005. The Golden Rams won all four of its tournament games during the week. Mager, winner of all four games, finished the tournament with a 0.41 ERA, allowing 15 hits and only one earned run throughout. She also struck out 22 batters.
Miles will finish its season (21-17) overall, including a (3-2) record in the conference tournament.
Albany State’s Erica King had an impressive tournament of her own. King finished the week 6-for-7, scoring three runs and driving in two more in the process. Ta’Shelya Bynum drove in 12 runs in her four games, including one homerun and six runs scored.
Albany State also got major contributions from Alyssa Spellman and Tiffany Peterson. The duo was a combined 11-for 21 with 11 runs scored.
SOFTBALL
5th Round Loser’s Bracket Game: Miles 7, Benedict 0
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—Miles earned itself a birth in Saturday afternoon’s SIAC tournament championship by defeating Benedict 7-0 earlier that afternoon. Presley went the distance for the Golden Bears, pitching seven innings and yielding only one hit. Martin and Tyson went a combined 4-for-7, with two runs scored and two RBIs.