Boxscore
PETERSBURG, Va. -
Wayne Lewis (Jr./Charlotte, N.C.) smacked a three-run home run to propel second-seed Saint Augustine's College to a 7-2 victory over top-seed Chowan Friday in the winner's bracket of the 2011 CIAA Baseball Championships on the campus of Virginia State.
With the victory, the Falcons (36-16 overall) reach Saturday's finals for the fourth consecutive year. They need one win in the double-elimination tournament to claim their second straight CIAA title.
The Falcons will play third-seed Winston-Salem State for the championship at 1 p.m. at VSU. If the Falcons lose, a second game will start 30 minutes following the conclusion of the first game.
WSSU eliminated regular-season champ Chowan 18-12 Friday to reach the championship round. The Falcons are 5-0 against WSSU this season including Thursday's 3-2 victory in the opening game of the league tournament.
The Falcons set a modern school mark with the victory. The 36 wins surpassed the previous record set by the Falcons last year by one game.
Lewis led the Falcons with four RBIs and Joe Pierce (Sr./Wetumpka, Ala.) added three RBIs for the Falcons, who had eight hits. Alex Di Dio (Soph./Newport News, Va.) scattered seven hits, recorded six strikeouts and had two walks in nine innings to improve to 9-7.
It was the second straight strong pitching outing in the tournament for the Falcons. On Thursday, Brandon Stewart (Sr./Riverdale, Ga.) held Winston-Salem State to two runs in a 3-2 victory.
NCAA steals and runs leader Rashad Ingram (Sr./Savannah, Ga.) had two stolen bases in addition to two doubles and three runs scored . Ingram is 77-for-83 on stolen base attempts and has 70 runs on the season.
The Falcons struck first minutes after the contest started between the CIAA's top two teams. Pierce's triple drove in lead-off batter Ingram, who was hit by a pitch to reach base and stole second. Pierce scored on Lewis' RBI sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead. The Hawks scored in the same inning to make the score 2-1.
Lewis gave the Falcons some breathing room with his three-run homer to left field in the fifth inning. It padded the lead to 5-1.
The Hawks (30-15 overall), who were 3-1 against the Falcons in the regular season, added one run in eighth. The Falcons responded with two runs in the ninth on Pierce's two-run double for the final margin.
