Press Release via LSUE Athletics
ENID, Oklahoma – The familiar recipe of strong pitching and critical offense proved fruitful again for LSU Eunice Baseball in a 4-2 win over St. Johns River State College on Tuesday at David Allen Memorial Ballpark. The Bengals (54-7) secured a berth in the bracket final, needing one more win to clinch a berth in the NJCAA Division II World Series Championship Game.
The Bengals continued their postseason theme of jumping in front early, scoring first for the sixth straight postseason game. Weston Fulk sacrificed in Bennett Clement on a ground ball to give the Bengals an early edge. After the Vikings knotted it up in the third, LSUE regained the lead in the third inning by taking advantage of the lone St. Johns River error on a misplayed fly ball to score Dawson Willis.
Starting pitcher Alec Beversdorf kept the Vikings at bay in what would be a classic pitching duel. The freshman came out on fire, striking out the side in the first inning. Beversdorf then avoided disaster in the fourth inning, getting out of a bases loaded jam with no outs and only yielding a single run. The Vikings tied the game 2-2 before Beversdorf ended the threat with one of two double plays by the Bengals’ defense.
Beversdorf received a tough luck no-decision after going 5.1 innings, scattering four hits and one walk. The freshman struck out seven batters in his outing.
Liam Watt took over on the mound and continued to subdue St. Johns River. After two quick ground outs in the sixth inning, Watt pieced together a perfect seventh inning and worked around an eighth inning single.
That would set the stage for LSUE’s offense to provide some late game magic. Alex Dupuy kicked off the seventh inning with a leadoff single and advanced to second base on a balk. After Collin Husser sacrificed Dupuy over to third, Andrew Lee would bring in the go-ahead run, reaching down on a breaking ball to execute a squeeze to put the Bengals ahead 3-1.
Dupuy was again a sparkplug an inning later, sacrificing home pinch runner Reuben Williams to deliver an insurance run, making it 4-1 LSU Eunice. Teddy Johnson kicked off the inning with a single up the middle before Williams was subbed in.
Collier Barham grabbed his eighth save of the season, hurling a gutsy ninth inning by working around a leadoff double by the Vikings. Barham induced a game ending double play to send the Bengals dugout into celebration.
LSUE now awaits the winner of Wednesday’s elimination bracket final between St. Johns River State College and Des Moines Area CC. The Bengals’ Thursday night game will kick off at 7:00PM.