CARY, N.C. – Behind consensus first team All-American and National Pitcher of the Year
Jeremy Adorno's eighth complete game effort of the season and an early three-run blast by junior
Conner Allen, sixth-year head coach
Justin Pettigrew's (2) Southern Arkansas club claimed a 3-1 win over (6) Rollins in the opening game of the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship on Saturday afternoon from beautiful Coleman Field inside the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.
The Muleriders (47-11) run its win streak to ten games and the victory is the first for the program in a national postseason tournament since legendary head coach Steve Goodheart's Muleriders survived Grand Canyon 23-22 in the 1987 NAIA World Series. Southern Arkansas awaits the winner of Saturday's second game between (2) Point Loma and (7) Illinois-Springfield on Monday at 6 p.m. EDT. Live coverage links are available at
www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
There's bouncing back and then there's nearly being lights out on DII Baseball's biggest stage. That was Adorno on Saturday. In his 17
th start of the season, and first since registering back-to-back no decisions in the Central Region Tournament, the right hander delivered his biggest performance to date. Adorno scattered five hits, none of which went for extra bases, allowed a single walk and fanned six to remain unbeaten with his SAU single season program record 15
th win (14 - Larry Lundeen, 1987).
Rollins threatened immediately by placing the first two batters to the plate in the top half of the first on base, but Adorno struck out consecutive batters and then utilized a 6-3 to end the threat with runners at second and third. He then quickly worked the second and third frames facing the minimum in both innings as he erased a two-out single in third inning by picking off the runner with a smooth move over to freshman
Jakob Machuca at first base.
Four of the first six outs recorded by the Muleriders were via an Adorno strikeout. His third of the game which sat down the leadoff batter to the plate in the second inning was historic. The first-year Mulerider became the program's single season strikeout leader with his 133
rd punch-out of the campaign topping SAU Sports Hall of Famer Hayden Simpson's previous record of 132 set back in 2009.
The defensive play behind Adorno was as solid as his effort on the mound and that was evident in the fifth when Mulerider middle infielders
Chris Sutton and
Riley Orr each worked an assist and a putout on a pair of fielder's choices that sandwiched the starter's fifth strikeout of the afternoon.
Rollins stranded a leadoff single in the sixth, but managed its lone run of the contest in the pre-stretch seventh as a pair of singles bookended a hit-by-pitch to load the bases for the Tars with no outs in the inning. The fourth batter to the plate, Cameron Meehan, appeared to have either lined out to junior
Ty Manning in centerfield or dropped in a run-scoring single. Rollins did plate a single run on the contact from its eight-hole hitter, but Manning stepped back, let the ball bounce and then started an 8-6-5 force play that erased a base runner at third.
With one out, freshman
Brandon Nicoll fielded a groundball on the first pitch in Jared Herron's at bat and fired to Sutton at second who turned to Machuca at first to cap the pair of momentum-shifting defensive plays and keep the Muleriders lead intact at 3-1. Adorno faced the minimum the rest of the way out forcing a fly out that was nabbed by a diving Allen for the first out in the ninth, one groundout, a strikeout and three infield pop ups the last of which was softly hit and chased down by Sutton to secure the win.
It was a pitcher's duel on Saturday as the Tars' All-American two-way player Jaylyn Whitehead, the nation's leader in ERA, went 8.0 innings allowing just five Mulerider base hits, while striking out eight with one walk. A single by
Chris Sutton with one gone in the bottom half of the eighth inning ended a streak of 15-straight Muleriders retired by the crafty lefthander.
The one mistake made by the Rollins starter came in the second as an 0-1 fastball was delivered to Allen with two outs and two on in the frame and was promptly deposited 386 feet onto the berm in leftfield after leaving the yard with an exit velocity of 101mph. It was senior
Tucker Burton and sophomore
Chris Lyles that recorded consecutive two-out singles, Burton's into centerfield and Lyles' into left, that set the table for Allen whose 11
th of the season served as the difference and became yet another key long ball for the Muleriders in their postseason journey.
