Tusculum Wins 2012 Food Lion SAC Baseball Championship

FOREST CITY, N.C.-Tusculum prevailed in a slugfest to earn a 16-9 victory over Wingate and win the 2012 Food Lion SAC Baseball Championship.

Tusculum clubbed five home runs on the day, paced by Alexi Colon's two round-trippers. Aaron Guinn, Cade Stallings and Matt Henriksen also homered for the Pioneers. Henriksen was named Tournament MVP for his performance during the weekend. This is the third time Tusculum has been crowned SAC Champs, and is the program's first conference title since 2008. Tusculum earns an automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Division II Championship.

Wingate was paced by home runs by Jacob Karr and Jason Hunter. Karr, Hunter and Josh Clark each had two RBI for the Bulldogs.

Tusculum led the entire game, but key pitching in the bottom of the sixth helped turn the tide in the Pioneers favor for good. With the Pioneers clinging to a 9-8 lead, Wingate put runners on second and third with none out. Tusculum pitcher John-Austin Shepard entered to shut the door. The right-hander struck out three consecutive Bulldogs to keep Wingate off the scoreboard.

From there, Tusculum scored five unanswered runs over the next two innings to build a 14-8 lead. Guinn crushed a two-run homer to make the score 11-8 in the top of the seventh. Colon and Henriksen each homered in the top of the eighth, and Tripper Crisson added an RBI on a squeeze play to cap the rally.

After falling behind 8-1 early, Wingate rallied to get back in the game. An RBI-single by Casey Allison and a two-run double by Clark cut the score to 8-4 before the first of Colon's homers pushed the Tusculum lead back to five.

The Bulldogs pulled within a run with three runs in the bottom of the fourth and another run in the bottom of the fifth. Highlights of the rallies included an RBI-double by Karr, RBI-single by Dodson McPherson, a sac fly by Brian Yeung and a solo-homer by Hunter.

Shepard earned the victory in relief for the Pioneers with four innings of two-hit relief. The sophomore struck out seven.

The all-tournament team is listed below. Highlighting the team was MVP Henriksen, who batted .563 with a homer, nine RBI's and three doubles on the weekend.

2012 Food Lion SAC Baseball Championship All-Tournament Team

C- Josh Clark, Wingate- 11 hits, .478 average
1B- Brian Yeung, Wingate- .350 average, three homers, eight RBI
1B- Albert Baur, Newberry- .375 average
2B- Matt Henriksen, Tusculum- .563 average, home run, nine RBI
3B- Cade Stallings, Tusculum - .421 average, home run, five RBI
INF- Cameron Beard, Catawba- .333 average, four RBI
3B/OF- Zach Long, Carson-Newman- .444 average
CF- Casey Allison, Wingate- .364 average, two homers, five RBI
LF- Thomas Spitz, Wingate- Two homers, two doubles, two triple, .409 average
LF- Alexi Colon, Tusculum- .313 average, three homers, five RBI
OF- Champ Stuart, Brevard- .286 average
P- Nate King, Catawba- 4.1 innings, 1-0 record, four strikeouts
P- Evan Faithful, Carson-Newman- 6 innings, 4.50 ERA
P- Adam Sigmon, Tusculum - 9 innings, 1-0 record, seven strikeouts
P- John-Austin Shepard, Tusculum - 4 innings, 1-0 record, seven strikeouts