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Delta Falls in Third Round of Region XII Tournament

Questionable call costs Pioneers in loss

Box Score
Delta Falls in Third Round of Region XII Tournament
May 21, 2016

Battle Creek, MI -  The Delta College baseball team was eliminated from post-season play on Friday, dropping a 13-10 contest to Cuyahoga Community College which finished the Pioneers season with a record of 31-22.   Delta and Kellogg Community College were the final two Michigan colleges left in the tournament while Cuyahoga would go on to be eliminated by Kellogg in the loser bracket finals.

Delta jumped on top of Cuyahoga in the first inning as Z Wesley blasted a three run homerun before two errors, a single and a two RBI squeeze from Watson Moore made it 5-0 after one inning of play.

Delta would add to their lead in the top of the second to go up 6-0 before Cuyahoga answered with five runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to make it a 6-5 game.

"We struggled on the mound at the wrong time," said head coach Danny Smith. "We just couldn't adjust to the strike zone early enough in the game to put it away."

Cuyahoga went on to go up 7-6 in the fourth as two singles, a hit batter and an error gave the lead back to the Challengers.  Ty Robbins would give the Pioneers the lead in the sixth though, as he launched a two run homerun over the center field fence to put Delta back on top, 8-7.

Cuyahoga answered once again with a two-run blast of their own in the bottom of the inning to take a 9-8 lead.  In the top of the sixth, Zack Booth led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Derrek Clyde before scoring on a Jordan Jachens single to tie the game.  Neither team scored in the seventh and the game went in to the top of the eighth still tied at 9-9.

The tide of the game changed in the top of the eighth with a questionable call that went against the Pioneers. 

With one out, Watson Moore singled to right field.   Zack Booth then put down a bunt that was thrown away by the Cuyahoga third baseman.  Moore, seeing the throw sail in to right field scampered to third and appeared to easily slide safely into the bag.  However, he was called out and the inning ended one batter later on a fly out.

"We squeeze him home with Derrek Clyde at the plate and go up one if we get that call," said Smith.  "That allows us to go to Ty Robbins for a two inning save and we hopefully move on."

"I felt like he missed the call," said Smith on the umpire's decision. "Sometimes you're the windshield – sometimes you're the bug.  We became the bug on that play."

Delta then gave up four runs in the bottom of the inning to go down 13-9 and ultimately lost the contest, 13-10.  

Z Westley had three hits including his homerun in the first to lead the offense while Ty Robbins hit a two-run bomb, Drew Harding had two hits and Watson Moore had 2-RBI and a single.
"We've had fans, coaches and administration from all over the place down here this week tell us how much they enjoy watching our guys play. I've heard gritty, blue-collar, scrappers and intelligent all describe our team from them.  
"That makes me proud of our season, to know people see the same things I see from our team."

This is the final season for Delta participating in the Division II Region XII tournament.  They will compete as a Divison III NJCAA school in 2017.

"The 2017 season starts tomorrow," said Smith.  "We'll hand out awards and have our banquet, etc but for all intents and purposes, we start preparing for 2017 tomorrow."