Box Score
CLINTON, MS - On two occasions the Mississippi College Choctaws (30-16) were one pitch away from the American Southwest Conference Championship, but the University of Texas at Tyler battled back from a 4-1 9th-inning deficit to claim an 8-5 win at Frierson Field.
UT-Tyler beat MC 16-2 in the opening game Sunday to set up the winner-take-all game. UT-Tyler's Matt Sparks MC's
Brett Hinson dueled for almost seven innings keeping their teams in the game. Hinson allowed just one run in seven innings for MC pitching on one day rest from a 3-hit shutout Friday. Sparks allowed just two hits through six innings and no runs as UT-Tyler held te 1-0 lead.
Sparks finally ran into trouble in the 7th and was pulled for Bo Ziegler with no outs and runners on 1st and 2nd. Ziegler walked a batter and struck out a batter to set up a bases loaded and one out situation. MC catcher
Jacob Daniel laced a double down the right field line that cleared the bases and gave MC a 3-1 lead.
Clay Crosswhite made it 4-1 with a single.
Jack Craven came in to pitch for MC in the eighth after throwing eight innings in a win over UT-Tyler Saturday, and worked a perfect inning.
In the bottom of the eighth MC loaded the bases with no outs and 3-4-5 up, but Ziegler got out of it with no runs setting up the late game heroics.
With Craven still on the mound MC twice got down to a final strike with nobody on base and a 4-1 lead. UT-Tyler's Kendall Fox had a great at bat that resulted in a single, which brought up Chad Daleiden as the winning run. A pitching change brought in
Reed Prewitt to close the game, but Daleiden came up with a two-run homerun to give the Patriots a 5-4 advantage, and they would tack on three more runs in the inning.
MC made one last run knocking Ziegler out in the ninth, and had the tying run at the plate with no outs when Brett Holland entered the game to close for the Patriots, but Holland was able to finish it off.