Campbellsville University will be making its first trip ever to the NAIA Baseball World Series after a 4-0 win over Kansas Wesleyan on Friday in Lindenwood, Mo.
Riding the pitching
arm of senior hurler Bryan Fuller, who threw 21 consecutive innings in
a 26-hour span, the Tigers won three straight games after a 5-4 loss to
the team they beat for the Region title.
Fuller, from
Lewisburg, Ky. pitched the last three innings against Lindenwood
University on Thursday afternoon, nine against Kansas Wesleyan Thursday
evening in an 11-0 shutout and nine today.
Fuller threw more than 180 pitches in the two-day span.
In the two games against Kansas Wesleyan Fuller gave up 12 hits, four in the 4-0 championship game triumph. He struck out six.
Campbellsville
jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning and that proved to be all
the Tigers needed. The Tigers got the majority of their offensive
production from the top of their order. Of the Tigers' nine hits, six
came from Tyler Derby, Nathan Quesenberry and Nick Bertolucci.
Bertolucci scored twice and had an RBI. Derby and Quesenberry also had RBI.
Campbellsville got solo runs in the fourth and sixth innings.
In the fourth
Bertolucci singled and scored on a two-out single by Quesenberry. In
the sixth Colin Bryan, who was hit by a pitch, went to second on
Derby's single. He stole third and scored on a wild pitch.
Campbellsville
enters the World Series with a 40-10 record and beat a team that
compiled a 26-game winning streak coming into post-season play.
The game was not
without some drama. The Tigers committed two errors in the top of the
ninth with one out before shortstop Bertolucci scooped up a grounder,
stepped on second and threw to first for a double play. It was the
fifth twin killing of the game for the Tigers.
The Avista-NAIA College World Series begins Friday, May 22 in Lewiston, Idaho.