From Emory University Athletics
The Emory University baseball team opened up play in the 2016 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship on Wednesday afternoon with a 6-5 victory over Thomas More at Berry College in Mount Berry, GA.
Sophomore Bubby Terp had a career day at the plate leading the Emory offense. Terp went 2-for-3, driving in a career-high four runs including a three-run home run. Junior Chris Young extended his hit streak to nine games with a 3-for-4 effort and seniors Dylan Eisner and David Coble each drove in one run for the Eagles (31-10).
Junior Kyle Monk pitched a season-long four innings in relief, allowing no runs on four hits, no walks and struck out three. Junior Jackson Weeg started the game for Emory, giving up five runs (4 ER) on eight hits and five walks but racked up five strikeouts.
The first four innings of the contest was a slugfest as the two programs combined for 10 runs on 13 hits through the four frames before turning into a battle of the bullpens.
Thomas More (30-11) struck first plating one unearned run in the top half of first as Casey Metzger came around from second on the fielding error by third basemen junior Philip Maldari.
The Saints added two more runs in the third as Sean Lawrence was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Zach Fardo followed with a sac fly to center to bring home Donovan Pogue.
Emory answered in the bottom of the inning as senior Chris Slivka was hit by a pitch and Young singled to begin the inning. Terp then deposited his third round tripper of the season over the right field fence for the opposite field home run to tie the game at 3-3.
Thomas More plated two more runs to regain the lead in the fourth as Sam Hauer picked up a two-run single to score Ben Laumann and Pogue.
The Eagles again responded in the bottom of the inning as Terp drove in another run. The sophomore just missed his second home run of the ball game but hit it deep enough to right field to allow Slivka to score from third on the sac fly to left.
Both teams' pitching staffs settled down over the next few innings, trading zeroes on the scoreboard until the bottom of the eighth. Maldari and sophomore Nick Chambers led off the inning with a walk and single before Slivka was retired on a fly out to center. Young then loaded the bases with just one out with his third hit of the contest to bring up Terp.
Terp hit a weak chopper to third which was fielded cleanly by the Saints' third baseman Bailey Abbatiello. Abbatiello threw home to nab the lead runner, Maldari, at the plate. With the bases still loaded and Coble up to bat, the senior worked a five pitch walk to force in the go-ahead run to give Emory a 6-5 edge heading into the ninth.
Thomas More's Lawrence began the ninth with a single off Monk and advanced to second on a sac bunt. Following a foul out to the catcher by Abbatiello, the Saints sent up a pinch hitter, Jacob Whitford, to face Monk with two outs. Whitford hit a laser off the bat on a 0-2 offering but Terp made a fantastic diving catch for the final out of the game.