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Box Score 2 |
Box Score 3 The Hawks punched their ticket to the NJCAA DII World Series yesterday with a 4-2 win over Lincoln Land in the Region-24 Championship game.
The Hawks entered the tournament as the top seed, sitting at an overall record of 45-8 and a perfect 32-0 record against MWAC opponents. As the top seed, the Hawks earned a bye on day one and would kickoff their tournament play on Thursday against Danville.
In their first game of the tournament the Hawks used an exceptional performance from sophomore ace,
Reese Dutton, to earn a 7-0 win over the Jaguars. Dutton, throwing 104 pitches, hurled a complete game shutout for the Hawks as he earned his ninth win of the season. Dutton allowed just three hits and one walk through his nine innings of work. Dutton also racked up a whopping fourteen strikeouts in the game. Dutton, who leads the team in innings pitched with 58, also leads the Hawks with 83 strikeouts and sits at an ERA of 1.707 and a WHIP of .948.
In game one the Hawks' offense was led by freshman
Jacyk Uehling. Uehling had a pair of hits and two RBIs to go along with a run scored.
Sam Antonacci and
Jeremy Figueroa added two hits a piece.
Ben Hartl chipped in two RBIs and a double.
Win the win, the Hawks would advance to the semi-final game on Friday against Lincoln Land. The Hawks would use more timely hitting and solid pitching to defeat the Loggers 8-4. Freshman starter,
Jason Buhl, threw five and two thirds innings for the Hawks to also earn his ninth win of the season. Buhl would not walk a single batter as he allowed just four runs on seven hits and struck out seven.
Coming in relief for Buhl was sophomore, Mitchell Sampson. Sampson shut the Loggers down in his three and a third innings of work, as he would not allow a single run. Sampson gave up just two hits to the Loggers, while striking out five. Sampson is now four for four in save opportunities this season and leads the team in ERA and WHIP, sitting at 1.570 and .872 respectively.
In game two, sophomore
Braden Zenor led the offense with three hits.
Bryce Brown, Antonacci and Figueroa each picked up a pair of hits and cranked a home run.
After defeating the Loggers in the semi-final game, the Hawks would find themselves in the championship game. Lincoln Land would defeat ICC on Friday night to set up the rematch on Saturday afternoon.
In the championship game, the Hawks would find themselves trailing 1-0 headed to the third inning. However, that wouldn't last long as Uehling and Figeuroa would blast back-to-back home runs to put the Hawks on top. The Hawks would stay there for the rest of the game as they would eventually bring home a 4-2 win.
Freshman
Meade Johnson started the game for the Hawks and earned the win as he allowed just one run over four and a third innings. Johnson allowed just five hits and struck out five as he picked up his seventh win of the season. Johnson, who sits behind Dutton for most innings pitched this year with 46.2, also sits right behind Dutton in strikeouts, ERA, and WHIP. Johnson so far this season has 68 strikeouts along with an ERA of 1.736 and a WHIP of 1.007.
Coming in relief for Johnson and ending the Logger threat in the the fifth inning, was fellow freshman,
Jake Jakubowski. Jakubowski allowed just one run through three and two thirds innings of work. Recording the final three outs of the game and earning the save was sophomore,
Teague Conrad.
Sophomore,
Riley Rundquist led the offense with a pair of doubles, along with an RBI and a run scored.
Mason Sawyer also cranked an RBI double for the Hawks.
Defeating the Loggers for the sixth time this season, the Hawks punched their ticket to the World Series. This will be the first time since 2013 that the Hawks will play in the World Series. Heartland has now earned a trip to four National Tournaments with the other three berths coming in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
The Hawks will now await the bracket and match-ups to be revealed on Tuesday, at 10:00 AM. To view a full list of championship qualifiers, click
HERE
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