NKU advanced to the GLVC Tournament championship game.
Indianapolis box score |
UM-St. Louis box score
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Great Lakes Valley Conference era officially ended for Northern Kentucky University on Sunday afternoon, and the Norse baseball team nearly brought back a championship trophy as a going-away gift.
Indianapolis, however, pulled out a 4-3 victory over NKU in the GLVC Tournament championship game to deny the Norse their sixth league crown. Having announced it will reclassify to Division I status next season and join the Atlantic Sun Conference, NKU was looking to add the 2012 GLVC Tournament championship to the other five (2002, '04, '06, '08, '09) in the baseball program's trophy case.
But Indianapolis stood in the way. The top-seeded Greyhounds (42-14) survived a furious eighth-inning NKU rally to claim the championship and keep alive their hopes of being the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional.
NKU, now 35-20, is expected to receive an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament when the pairings are announced Sunday night. The Norse trailed 4-1 going into the bottom of the eighth inning, but loaded the bases with none out.
Brad Clement drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to cut the Indianapolis lead to 4-2. After a wild pitch advanced runners to second and third,
Phil Smith's grounder to second knocked in
Bradley Vanderglas to make it a 4-3 game.
Indianapolis reliever Donovan Drake then struck out
Pat Williams to strand
Max Colaner at third base.
In the bottom of the ninth, Drake retired NKU in order to seal the victory for Indianapolis.
Earlier in the day, the Norse posted a 6-4 win against Missouri-St. Louis to reach the championship game. Williams hit a 3-run homer to spark the NKU offense.
