POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
(CARY, N.C.) PLNU Baseball nearly did it again.
No. 6 seed Point Loma faced a late deficit in Tuesday's NCAA World Series elimination game against No. 3 Catawba and nearly completed yet another remarkable comeback win in the postseason, before the Sea Lions' sensational spring came to an end with a 10-9 defeat.
Trailing by two in the top of the ninth and down to its final out,
Josiah Rodriguez came through with a two-RBI base hit to tie the game before
Hank Smith gave PLNU a 9-8 lead with a triple into the right-center gap.
However, Catawba came back to walk it off with a pair of runs in the bottom half to spoil the Sea Lions' remarkable ninth-inning comeback.
Point Loma jumped out to an early 5-0 lead with three runs in the third and two more in the fourth.
Smith got the Sea Lions on the scoreboard with an RBI-single in the three-run third, which was punctuated by
Mason Cook's sacrifice fly and
Aiden Arriaga's base hit that brought in a couple more runs.
Smith then knocked in two more in his next at-bat with another single, giving PLNU a 5-0 advantage in the fourth.
Catawba responded with a seven-run fifth inning before scoring one more in the sixth to go ahead by an 8-5 margin.
Jack Ryan got one back for the Sea Lions, scoring on a wild pitch in the seventh to get Point Loma to within two.
That set the stage for Rodriguez and Smith to come up clutch with two outs in the ninth and the Sea Lions' season in the balance.
West Region champions Point Loma (50-13 overall) reached the 50-win mark for the second time in program history after making a third NCAA Division II World Series appearance in five seasons.
