Baseball_General
Sanjay Ramdon

Baseball Sports Information Office

Falcons Finish As Runner-Ups In CIAA Baseball Championships


Game 1 Boxscore

Game 2 Boxscore

PETERSBURG, Va. - Saint Augustine's College lost 7-6 and 3-0 to Winston-Salem State Saturday in the finals of the 2011 CIAA Baseball Championships held on the campus of Virginia State.

The second-seed Falcons (36-18 overall) entered the tournament ranked seventh in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region. They will wait and see if they receive a bid to the NCAA Regionals, which starts May 19-23.
 
Five Falcons made the All-CIAA Tournament team. They were NCAA pitching wins leader Brandon Stewart (Sr./Riverdale, Ga.), NCAA steals and runs leader Rashad Ingram (Sr./Savannah, Ga.), Joe Pierce (Sr./Wetumpka, Ala.), Wayne Lewis (Jr./Charlotte, N.C.) and Josh Bishop (Sr./Richmond, Va.)

The Falcons had won five previous meetings this season against the Rams prior to Saturday including Thursday's 3-2 win in the opening game of the CIAA double-elimination tournament. The Rams turned the tables on the Falcons in the finals. They forced the Falcons to play from behind both games, and the defending CIAA champions, needing one win to claim their second straight title, never led.

In game 2, the Rams opened a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and the Falcons never recovered in the three-run loss. It was only the fourth shutout loss this season for the Falcons. 

Pitcher Alex Di Dio (Soph./Newport News, Va.) held the third-seed Rams (30-19 overall) scoreless after the first inning. He scattered eight hits and struck out eight in nine innings, but finished as the losing pitcher because the Falcons failed to generate enough hits.Lewis had two of the Falcons' four hits.

The Falcons' best chance to rally was the seventh inning. They loaded the bases with two outs but did not score.

In game 1, the Falcons scored four runs in the ninth inning, but the Rams prevailed 7-6 to force a second game. 

Trailing 7-2, the Falcons almost pulled off a miraculous comeback in the bottom of the ninth inning. RBI singles by Ingram and Pierce closed the margin to 7-4. The Falcons added another run on a bases-loaded walk to Lewis.
 
An RBI sacrifice fly by Bishop sliced the deficit to 7-6. The Falcons had men on second and third with two outs, but the Rams recorded a strikeout to end the game.
 
Pierce was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a triple, and Jeremy Wilkins (Soph./Smithfield, N.C.) was 3-for-4 with an RBI for the Falcons. Anthony Holloway (Jr./New Bern, N.C.) was 3-for-4 with one run scored and David Nelson (Soph./Richton Park, Ill.) was 2-for-4 with one run scored. The Rams collected 15 hits and the Falcons had 13 hits.

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