UC Clermont baseball defeats Penn State DuBois, wins Small College National Championship

Behind a roster loaded with local talent, the University of Cincinnati-Clermont Cougars baseball team seized the United State Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) Small College National Championship after toppling the defending champs Penn State DuBois 4-0 Friday afternoon.

As one of the University of Cincinnati's satellite campuses, UC Clermont, located in Batavia, has its own baseball team almost completely made up of players from Greater Cincinnati. This season, the Cougars clinched the No. 2 seed in the Small College World Series tournament in DuBois, Pennsylvania, which ran from Monday to Friday.

The Cougars defeated Florida National in the first round, Miami Hamilton in the second round and the Penn State DuBois Lions in the third round, knocking them into the loser's bracket of the double-elimination tournament.

After defeating Florida National, the Lions earned their way back into the championship game for a rematch with the Cougars. In that game, from the second inning to the fourth, the Lions plated five unanswered runs and never looked back from there, ultimately taking the game 7-4 and forcing a sudden-death game.

However, the Cougars were better prepared in that decisive second game Friday, as Logan Wilson − a Dixie Heights High School product − was lights out on the mound, dealing eight strikeouts while only allowing four hits en route to a 4-0 shutout to help clinch the title.

Wilson was provided with solid run support as catcher Bubba Allen (Colerain High School) went 2 for 3 with one RBI. Additionally, first baseman Bryce Rayner (Western Brown High School) smashed a home run while third baseman Jackson Roseburrough (Beechwood High School) and Wilson knocked in a run each.

The Cougars won their second national championship in program history, with the first one coming over decade ago in 2013.

UC Clermont shortstop Jack Deeds was named the tournament's most valuable player, as the senior out of Moeller High School recorded at least one RBI in four of the Cougars' five games. His best game came in the third round where he went 3 for 5 with two RBIs, and despite not having a hit in the final game, he scored three of the four runs.

In total for the tournament, Deeds went 6 for 15 with six total RBIs.

Additionally, Rayner, Wilson and Liam Morgenrot (Princeton High School) were named to the all-tournament team, along with three players from Penn State DuBois, two from Florida National and one from Miami Hamilton.

In the regular season, the Cougars rallied for a 37-13 overall record , good enough for the third best record in the USCAA. Those 37 wins were the most the Cougars have earned in a single season. They also broke team records for most hits, home runs, RBIs and runs.

Deeds set three new individual records, posting the most at-bats, hits and runs by a player in a single season. Wilson tied a program record for most home runs while also setting new records for most RBIs, wins and strikeouts.

Hunter Johnson (Milford High School) tied the record for appearances by a pitcher, along with setting a new record for most saves.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: UC Clermont baseball defeats Penn State DuBois, wins Small College National Championship