OXFORD, Miss. — With their season down to its final six outs, third-seeded Western Kentucky University (42-19) scored six in the eighth inning and then one in the ninth to rally from a 9-3 deficit and earn an improbable 10-9 come-from-behind win over eighth-ranked Mississippi (42-18) on Sunday evening at Oxford-University Stadium in the 2009 NCAA Oxford Regional.
In addition to having to play an elimination game against second-seeded Missouri earlier in the day while the defending Southeastern Conference Champions rested, the Hilltoppers rallied in front of 8,377 Rebel fans to knock off the top-seed and force a winner-take-all showdown tomorrow at 7:00 PM. WKU will be playing in its first-ever NCAA Regional Championship Game after equaling the program's entire NCAA Tournament win total of three in this NCAA Oxford Regional.
"I've been doing this for 21 years and that is probably the best ballgame I have been a part of in terms of comebacks, the stage and the atmosphere. I have been saying it all year about these kids. To go out there and play the way they did today for 18 innings and to beat a heck of an Ole Miss ballclub in front of a great crowd with that type of comeback is an amazing feeling," said WKU head coach Chris Finwood, the 2009 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year. "I couldn’t be more proud of them. We had a lot of big hits and they never gave up. We were able to battle back and put up a bunch of runs off an outstanding bullpen. It was a heck of a win for
us and our program."
Trailing 9-3 heading into the top of the eighth, WKU first baseman Jake Wells led off with a single to left field. Jared Andreoli then drew a walk, a rarity for Rebel closer Jake Morgan who had issued just four free passes in 37.0 innings this season. Matt Payton then slapped a base hit to left field to load the bases with no one out.
Senior centerfielder Jeremy Coleman singled to right field, scoring Wells from third and then stepped in Matt Rice. His record-breaking hit was a memorable one as he smoked a Morgan offering to right center, plating two as WKU drew within three at 9-6. Rice, who had a career-best 5-for-5 game, recorded his 101st hit of the season, breaking Rob Tomberlin's 24-year-old school mark of 100 hits in a season. The CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Third-Team All-American has hit safely in 56 of the 60 games he has played in 2009 while catching the last 22-straight games for the Toppers.
With the tying run coming to the plate in the form of Wade Gaynor, the junior third baseman crushed a three-run blast over the left center field wall, his second of the game and 25th of the season, to knot it up at 9-9. WKU scored all six runs with no outs and touched up the Ole Miss closer for six earned runs on five hits and one walk in six batters faced.
As a team, eight of the nine batters for WKU had at least one hit, combining for a season-high 17 singles and three home runs.
In the bottom of the eighth, reliever Chad Adcock worked out of a runners at first and second, two-out jam by getting Matt Smith to ground into a force out at second.
Leading off his second-straight inning, Wells wasted little time in completing the dramatic comeback victory, smashing a solo shot over the right field wall for the game winner. It was his first long ball in 18 games, and his fifth of the season.
Garrie Krueger (2) struck out two of the three batters he faced in a perfect ninth for his second save of the season. Adcock (1-2) earned his second career victory after working the eighth.
Ole Miss grabbed the early 3-0 lead before Andreoli's RBI groundout in the fourth got the Hilltoppers on the board. But the Rebels continued to put distance between themselves and the Toppers with two in the fifth and then two more in the sixth on an RBI single up the middle by Kevin Mort, making it 7-1.
After WKU could not come up with the key hit, with just one run to show for 11 hits through six innings, Rice and Gaynor delivered back-to-back solo home runs on two pitches in the top of the seventh to trim the deficit to 7-3. But with runners at first and second with one out, Matt Hightower grounded into a four-six-three double play to end the threat.
Smith seemed to end all chances of a Hilltopper comeback in the bottom of the seventh frame by hitting a two-run homer to right as Ole Miss again led by its largest margin 9-3, setting up the heroics of the final two innings.
Wells finished 4-for-5 for WKU while Gaynor was 2-for-4 with four RBI and two runs scored. Playing in his hometown of Oxford, Miss., Chad Cregar turned in a 3-for-5 performance.
TEAM NOTES:
• WKU improves to 3-4 all-time against Ole Miss including 2-1 in the postseason at Oxford
• WKU improves to 64-119-2 all-time against the Southeastern Conference (SEC)
• The 20 hits for WKU is tied for the second most this season (tying 20 vs. VCU on March 28 and trailing 23 versus South Alabama on March 15, both home games)
• WKU had 17 singles versus Ole Miss, the most in any game this season
• With three home runs on the night, WKU now has 88 on the season, passing the 1981 team for third all-time (86), just one back of second
• WKU extended its single season school record of runs scored to 537
• Now with 42 wins on the season, WKU passes the 1981 team for fourth most victories in school history
• WKU improves to 26-0 when scoring 10 or more runs this season
• WKU has committed just one error in four NCAA Tournament games this season (36 innings)
• WKU wins its first game against a ranked opponent this season (now 1-3)
• WKU improves to 33-12 when smacking 10 or more hits
• WKU wins for just the fifth time in 19 games when trailing after six innings
• WKU wins for just the fifth time in 20 games when trailing after seven innings
• WKU improves to 4-1 when tied after eight innings (won four-straight)
• WKU improves to 7-4 in one-run games
• It was the 29th game this season in which WKU did not committ an error
• WKU posted its 20th come-from-behind win this season
INDIVIDUAL NOTES:
• Sophomore catcher Matt Rice hit safely in his 56th of 60 games played this season
• Rice went 5-for-5 to set a career-high for hits in a game, the third Hilltopper to have five hits in a game this season
• With his five hits, Rice has 101 on the season, breaking Rob Tomberlin's (1985) 24-year-old school record of 100
• Junior third baseman Wade Gaynor scored twice to give him 83 for the season, tying Rob Tomberlin's 1985 school record
• Junior Jake Wells went 4-for-5 to tie a career-high for hits in a game set against Troy on March 28
• Gaynor hit two home runs in a game for the fourth time this season
• Junior Bart Carter tossed a season-high 5.1 innings of work in just his fifth start of the year
NCAA TOURNAMENT NOTES:
• WKU has scored 36 runs through four NCAA Tournament games in 2009, besting their previous postseason record of 31 scored in 1980 in four games played at the Tallahassee Regional (went 2-2)
• With three wins in the 2009 NCAA Tournament, that equals the previous NCAA win total in the program's 90-year history
• WKU improves to 6-7 all-time in NCAA Tournament play (fourth appearance)
• WKU advances to the program's first-ever winner-take-all NCAA Regional Championship game
• WKU is making the program's first-ever at-large appearance in the NCAA Tournament
• WKU improves to 6-4 all-time versus the regional field: Mississippi (3-4), Missouri (3-0), and Monmouth (0-0)
• Senior outfielder Chad Cregar returns to his hometown of Oxford, Miss. for NCAA Tournament play
POSTGAME QUOTES:
Junior Third Baseman Wade Gaynor:
On facing Ole Miss sophomore RHP Jake Morgan for a second straight night:
“I would say last night he pitched well and we struck out twice looking. We didn’t have a real good approach against him. Today, we were successful. I don’t know if he had worse stuff or whatever. We just made an adjustment.
On home run at-bat versus Morgan:
“I was more worried about not striking out four times on the night. He threw me a slider and pulled off of it. I was getting in the box telling myself center field and he hung me a slider.”
On swinging out of a deficit:
“We haven’t made that big of a comeback on that big of a stage this year. We never feel like we are totally out of the ballgame. Whenever you are down 9-3 to Ole Miss at home in front of 10,000 people, you don’t have anything to lose. We just wanted to take good at-bats and hitting is contagious.”
Junior First Baseman Jake Wells
On game-winning home run:
“In my two-strike approach, I was looking for a fastball out, something I could hit to the gap. Luckily, he (Nathan Baker) hung me a slider, and still with an opposite-field approach sped up my bad and got lucky enough to hit one out.”
On team approach going into the 8th inning down 9-3:
“The main thing was just to get on base. I was in the seven hole this game and was wanting to get on base and leave it for guys like Gaynor, Rice, and (Chad) Cregar. With them anything can happen. So the most important thing was to get on base.”
