Gwynedd-Mercy dominates en route to its second consecutive PAC title.
Gwynedd-Mercy made it a repeat, winning their fourth Pennsylvania Athletic Conference Baseball Title
with a convincing 14-1 win over Centenary in the championship game Sunday afternoon. co-MVPs Tim McMenamin and Dan Strack led the offensive attack, each hitting grand slams. With the win, the Griffins (21-18) earn the PAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament with selections to made on Sunday, May 11.
This is the last PAC title. Next year
the conference will change its name to the Colonial States Athletic Conference.
McMenamin who made his first start on the mound this season, made it a good one, limiting the Cyclones to one run on three hits in six innings while fanning six. Centenary scored their run in the top of the first, getting an RBI double from Jared Grant. From there Gwynedd-Mercy continued its torrid offense, notching double-digit runs for the second-straight game.
Three times a host, three times a champ. McMurry played small ball Sunday to
defeat Concordia-Texas 4-1 in the American Southwest Conference Baseball Championship at Walt Driggers Field. Dakota Smith pitched a complete game and McMurry used timely hitting to win its fourth conference championship in school history. McMurry is 3-for-3 when hosting the ASC postseason tournament now after winning at Driggers Field in 1998, 2004 and 2008. The program's other title came in 2001 at the University of Dallas,when McMurry defeated Hardin-Simmons.
"This championship was very gratifying," said coach Lee Driggers. "Especially because we've overcome a lot of adversity with our injury situation late in the season. But this team pulled together during the time we had guys down until we got them back and we've been able to regain our stride."
McMurry squeaked out only four runs despite averaging over nine runs per contest on the season. But it didn't matter because Smith, the ASC Tournament MVP, allowed only eight singles, walked one and struck out four to move to 5-0 on the season. He allowed just one run in the sixth inning when Tom Williams hit a bases-loaded groundout to drive in Justin Beasley.