NCAA® 2007 DIVISION III BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
WEST REGION

GAME 8
#3 Texas Lutheran 8, #6 Pomona-Pitzer 7 (11 inn.)

TEXAS LUTHERAN RALLIES AGAIN, ELIMINATES POMONA-PITZER

ORANGE, Calif. - In the fourth one-run ballgame of the day (technically, this one ended on early Friday morning) and the second extra-inning game of the day, No. 3 seed Texas Lutheran University stunned upset-minded Pomona-Pitzer Colleges with an 8-7 comeback win in 11 innings. The loss eliminated No. 6 Pomona-Pitzer, which had won the 9:30 a.m. game on Thursday, also in 11 innings.

Texas Lutheran (37-9-1) will face conference-rival Texas-Dallas in an elimination game at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.

Pomona-Pitzer (30-13) led 6-1 in the eighth and 7-3 in the ninth, but Texas Lutheran - which scored six times in the ninth only to lose to Pacific Lutheran earlier Thursday - had another rally in it. The Bulldogs scored four in the top of the ninth, including twice on errors, to tie the game and force extra innings.

The Bulldogs then scored the winning run in the top of the 11th when Josh Moreno singled, advanced to second on a sacrifice, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch. Moreno finished the game 3-for-6 with three runs scored.

After Pomona-Pitzer scored three times in the third and twice in the fourth to build its early lead, Texas Lutheran's Austin Yager quieted the Sagehens bats, pitching three-hit ball over the final six innings in relief. Yager earned the victory to improve to 8-1 this season.

For the Sagehens, Zach Mandelblatt was 2-for-6 with three RBI.

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Game stats available online:
/athletics/06-07/baseball/regionals/game8.htm