GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (May 19, 2016) – A day of "firsts" for No.19 Lubbock Christian University Thursday in the NCAA Division II Baseball South Central Region Tournament at Suplizio Field.  The six-seeded Chaparrals played their first NCAA postseason game in the first game of the tournament and received a three-run home run from first baseman Tony Reyes and a two-run home run from first baseman Ryan Rogers to defeat top-seeded and tournament host Colorado Mesa 8-6 for their first NCAA postseason win in program history.
 
Reyes' home run, his fourth of the season, highlighted a five-run first inning. CMU starting pitcher Matt Allen walked leadoff hitter Jaime Bustamante and then surrendered six straight hits, with Reyes' homer and a double by Brendan McCarthy serving as extra-base hits during the span. A single by Brent Stewart, the sixth straight hit of the sequence, would turn out to be the last batter Allen would face. Along with the homer from Reyes, LCU received an RBI from Hunter McFall and Brett Wilhelm in the inning for the 5-0 lead.
 
The Mavericks came back, taking advantage of LCU miscues. With two runs in the second inning, a run in the third inning and a pair of runs in the fourth inning, the Mavs tied the game 5-5. Two Chap errors and a pair of passed balls led to four of the five CMU runs scoring unearned.
 
CMU also rallied behind relief pitcher John Beaudrie. The freshman went 6.1 innings of relief for his longest outing of his career. He held LCU to four hits over a five-inning span. He finally ran into trouble in the seventh inning. Bustamante led off with a single and advanced to second base on Jesse Pintado's first sacrifice bunt of the season. It set up an RBI-single from McFall for his second RBI of the game and put LCU up 6-5. The Mavericks went to their bullpen and trotted out left-handed reliever Tyler Ehlers and the Chaps countered with Rogers pinch hitting for Reyes. Rogers crushed the first pitch he saw from Ehlers and sent it into the left field stands for a two-run home run. Rogers' second home run of the season provided LCU an 8-5 lead.
 
Chaps starting pitcher Guillaume Blanchette allowed the first two batters aboard in the seventh inning and reliever Ricky Contreras came in and was able to eventually force Lane LaCrone into hitting into a bases loaded double play to prevent any runs. Contreras himself would get into some trouble in the ninth inning. Andrew Contreras hit an RBI-single to centerfield to cut the Chaps lead to 8-6, and they were able to get the tying run on base and the winning run to the plate. Brent Bezio came in for his team co-leading fourth save, forcing Garrett Ball into grounding out (the ground out put the tying run in scoring position) and then getting LaCrone into flying out to centerfield for the third out.
 
Blanchette improved to 12-2, allowing one earned run (allowed four unearned runs) off seven hits in six innings pitched. The loss went to Beaudrie (1-1), who allowed two runs off six hits in 6.1 innings.  Wilhelm (2-for-3), McFall (2-for-3, two RBI), McCarthy (2-for-4, two doubles) and JP Rousseau (2-for-5) each had multi-hit games for LCU.  Alex Fife was 4-for-5 and Contreras was 3-for-4 to lead the Mavs in the loss.
 
LCU improved to 36-17 on the season with the win and avoided a season-high three-game losing streak. Colorado Mesa fell to 43-12 with the loss. West Texas A&M and Angelo State play Thursday night and LCU will play the losing team of the contest Friday at 4:30 p.m. (Central).
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
5/7 – LCU, who went 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position at the Heartland Conference Tournament, went 5-for-7 with runners in scoring position Thursday.
3/16 – The Mavericks went 3-for-16 at the plate with runners in scoring position. The 4-9 hitters in the order combined 0-for-10 in the category for CMU.
0/2 – CMU were unsuccessful in two opportunities to score a run with a runner at third base and less than two outs.
4 – Guillaume Blanchette collected his team-leading fourth pick-off of the season, picking off Andrew Contreras to end a two-run fourth inning.