SHREVEPORT, La. – The Lyon College Scots baseball season came to an end on Wednesday afternoon in a 14-6 loss to the LSU-Shreveport Pilots in the opening rounds of the NAIA National Baseball tournament at Pilot Field in Shreveport.
The Scots finish the season with a 37-22 overall record and were the American Midwest Conference regular-season and tournament champions, which was a first under head coach Tony Roepke. Roepke was also named the Coach of the Year in the AMC.
On Wednesday against LSU-Shreveport, the Scots opened up a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning when Chris Lara brought in Alec White on a sacrifice ground out and Kaden Doan singled to left field to score Aaron Hurd.
The Pilots came back to take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning, but in the top of the fifth, Jayden Cull doubled down the left field line to bring in Joe Weatherford, then Lara singled up the middle to score Hurd and Cull for a 5-3 Scots lead.
LSU-Shreveport scored again in the bottom of the fifth, but Hurd homered in the top of the sixth to put the Scots up 6-4.
The Pilots scored one run in the bottom of the sixth and one in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at 6-6, then broke out with an 8-run bottom of the eighth.
At the plate, Alan West was 1-for -5, Weatherford was 2-for-5 with a run scored, White was 1-for-4 with a run scored, Hurd went 3-for-4 with three-run scored on a run batted in, Cull was 1-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, Lara was 1-for-4 with three runs batted in and Doan was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Troy Strack, who hit two solo homers against Loyola the day before, was 0-for-5.
Ayden Heitmann threw six innings and gave up five earned runs on nine hits. Nicholas Chaney came in to pitch the seventh inning and allowed one run, Andrew Pitts took over in the eighth and allowed three runs on two hits, then Calvin Hedgepeth came in to face three batters and allowed three hits and three runs and Cameron Gordon closed out the game for the Scots with an inning pitched and two runs allowed. Pitts suffered the loss (1-1).
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The Scots (37-21) were defeated by Loyola New Orleans 9-5 in the winner’s bracket semifinal game on Tuesday afternoon in 90-degree heat.
Loyola (36-22) took advantage of an error by Lyon College in the top of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead.
Kaden Doan singled in Aaron Hurd to tie the game 1-1in the bottom of the second inning for the Scots.
After a Loyola solo homerun in the top of the third inning, a run-scoring single in the fourth, and a walk with the bases loaded in the top of the fifth made it 4-1.
Troy Strack got the Scots back on track with a solo homer to left field, but Loyola scored again in the sixth to take a 5-2 lead.
Haydn Finley singled to right field in the bottom of the eighth inning to bring in Hurd, but Loyola would score four times in the top of the ninth to go up by six runs, 9-3.
Lyon College rallied when Logan Doody walked and his pinch runner Derek Underwood scored when Strack belted his second home run of the game over the left field fence to make it 9-5.
The Scots had eight hits in the game with Strack going 2-for-5 with two runs scored and three runs batted in. Alan West was 1-for-5 at the plate, Alec White was 1-for-4 , Hurd scored twice in four at-bats, Jayden Cull was 1-for-4, Chris Lara went 1-for-3, Finley was 1-for-1, Doan went 1-for-3 and Underwood scored a run as a pinch runner.
Clayton Burke and Jordan Olivera pitched for Lyon College in the game. Burke went five innings and gave up three earned runs and struck out five batters. Olivera pitched four innings and gave up five earned runs, while striking out four.
Image provided by Lyon College Athletics
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