Chaps Rally and Fall In Ninth

LEWISTON, Idaho (May 28, 2010) – Down to their final out in the ninth inning, Lubbock Christian University received a two-out solo home run from Rafael Thomas to tie the game at 6-6, but Lee University’s (Tenn.) Jose Cuevas hit a two-out walk-off home run in the bottom of the inning to lead the Flames to a 7-6 win Friday to open play for both teams at the Avista-NAIA World Series held at Harris Field.

Thomas’ homer came on a 0-1 pitch off reliever Aaron Everett, and it had ended a sequence of three straight runs by Lee, who came back from a 5-3 deficit to regain the lead at 6-5.  Lee opened the game with a sacrifice fly from Junior Rodriguez in the first inning.  LCU rallied for a trio of hits with two outs, including back-to-back doubles from Dan Neumann and J.J. Muse leading to a pair of runs in the top half of the second inning.  The Flames tied it at 2-2 with Tanner Moore following a J.J. Costantino triple with a double in the bottom of the second inning.  The see-saw battle continued with LCU providing a three-run two-out rally in the fourth inning.  Neumann hit the first of four consecutive singles by Chap batters to jumpstart the two-out rally to give LCU a 5-3 lead.  Lee started their comeback with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth inning with doubles from Tanner Moore and Michael Brown leading to a run each.  They took a 6-5 lead in the sixth inning with a run and held the lead until Thomas’ home run in the ninth inning. 

Cuevas’ home run to win the game was hit on the first pitch of his at-bat against Hunter Scott.  The Chaparrals reliever pitched the final 2 2/3 innings and the homer was the only hit he allowed.  He suffers the loss to drop to 10-4 on the season.  Everett had a blown save, but received the win to improve to 7-6.  Each of the game’s starting pitchers did not receive a decision.  LCU’s Paul Gonzalez, who received a win in his last five consecutive starts, allowed four earned runs on 10 hits in five innings, while Lee’s Matt Gilson allowed two earned runs on ten hits in 6 2/3 innings.

The Chaps scored all six of their runs with two outs.  Thomas, Richard Bohlken, Dan Neumann and Muse each had multi-hit performances in the game for LCU.  The Flames produced five doubles in the game and Tanner Moore had three of them as part of a 3-for-5 performance with a pair of runs-batted-in.  Cuevas was also 3-for-5 for Lee.

The loss by the defending champions marks the first time a defending NAIA National Championship squad making a return to the NAIA World Series the following season has lost a first round game since David Lipscomb (Tenn.) won the NAIA title in 1979 and lost an opening round game in 1980.  The Chaps are now 4-5 in their first game played at a World Series and they are 19-15 all-time in World Series play (ninth appearance).

Lubbock Christian will now play an elimination game Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. CDT against Belhaven University (Miss.).  Belhaven, making their first-ever NAIA World Series appearance, lost 9-1 to Point Loma Nazarene University.  Saturday morning’s contest can be heard locally in Lubbock on KFYO 790 AM, with audio simulcast on www.lcuchaps.com.  Live scoring and video links are also available on the Chaps official site.