FRESNO, CA - University of Houston-Victoria hurler Brock Haymon threw a complete game five-hit shutout to stymie the no. 1 seeded UBC Thunderbirds in a 5-0 Jaguars victory at the 2010 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round grouping in Fresno, CA.
The loss drops the top-seeded T-Birds into the loser's bracket. They must now win four straight games in order to earn their spot at the 2010 Avista-NAIA World Series scheduled for later this month in Lewiston, ID.
UBC continues their journey on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. in an elimination game against the winner of tomorrow's first game that features Ohio Dominican and Fresno Pacific, both of whom also lost their openers on Tuesday.
Haymon, a 6-foot-2 left-hander, had the T-Birds number all evening, racking up 12 strikeouts including a number in key situations. Over the final three innings, the former middle-reliever turned starter had six strikeouts with five coming with UBC players in scoring position.
The 'Birds made it interesting late, loading the bases with one out in the top of the ninth thanks to three walks, but Haymon once again worked out of a jam getting
Greg Densem to go down swinging before inducing a ground ball to end the game.
"Their pitcher threw a great game and we were just way too timid at the plate," said UBC head coach
Terry McKaig. "We weren't aggressive. We had a chance to get a lead in the top of the second but we couldn't get a ball in play with two runners on. That could have made everyone more relaxed but we were tight all night and the nerves showed. We didn't get it done."
After a scoreless first inning,
Nic Lendvoy led off the second with a double and
Blake Carruthers advanced him to third with a bunt single. Haymon responded by notching back-to-back strikeouts and then after loading the bases with a walk, the sophomore got Densem to ground out to end the threat.
The Jaguars took advantage in the second, tallying the winning run on a UBC miscue. With two outs and runners on first and third, UBC starter
Eric Brown got the UHV runner at first into a run-down, however, the T-Birds failed to get him out which allowed the Jaguars runner at third to score on a heads up bit of base running.
It was more of the same in the third inning, as a missed pick off opportunity allowed UHV to score a runner with a pair of ground outs to make it 2-0.
Joseph Briones then laced a two-out double in the bottom of the fourth that scored a pair of runs and the Jaguars added one more in the bottom of the fifth to end Brown's day after four and one third innings.
"Obviously Eric wasn't sharp but that wasn't the biggest problem tonight," observed McKaig. "It was more our offence, defensive miscues, base running errors, and missing signs. It was just one of those games where you can't believe all of those things went wrong.
The junior gave up five runs and eight hits while striking out a pair.
Taylor King came on in relief and led a bullpen effort that was near perfect over the final three and two thirds, combining with
David Otterman and
Miles Verweel to hold UHV to a pair of hits.
Game Notes: McKaig on his team's prospects heading into the rest of the week: "There's a lot of baseball to be played but there won't be if we play like that again tomorrow night. You have to go one game at a time because your season is on the line. We'll see what we're made of and how much heart these kids have"...UBC CF Carruthers came within centimetres of making the catch of the year on Briones two-RBI double, laying out but just barely missing the well-hit ball in the gap...
Alex White almost made it 4-2 in the fifth but his well struck ball to left-centre was caught at the wall...there was a 15-minute delay after the lights automatically turned off at 10:00 p.m...once the players returned to the field, the sprinklers turned on but were quickly shut off.
