Xavier moves on in NCAA Tournament play after 3-1 win over Radford

Courtesy of GoXavier.com

LOUISVILLE, Ky. –  A strong outing for Garrett Schilling helped Xavier Baseball pick up the fifth NCAA Tournament win in program history, topping the No. 4 seed Radford Highlanders, 3-1, at Jim Patterson Stadium in the Louisville Regional on Saturday afternoon.

Xavier moves to 33-26 on the season and advances to Sunday, when the No. 3 seeded Musketeers will play the loser of tonight’s game between the No. 1 seed Louisville and No. 2 seed Oklahoma.

NEXT UP

• Xavier will face the loser from Saturday night’s game between Louisville and Oklahoma, which is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday at Jim Patterson Stadium on University of Louisville’s campus.
• Sunday’s game is set to begin at 1:00 p.m. and the winner will move on to Sunday night’s regional championship game against the winner of tonight’s game.

XU ON THE MOUND

• Garrett Schilling made his 15th start of the season, pitching seven innings, allowing only one run on two hits with five strikeouts and a walk. The junior right hander picked his sixth win of the season.
• Trey Schramm pitched the eighth and ninth, sitting the Highlanders down in order to hold the 3-1 lead for the Musketeers. The save was Schramm’s fourth of the season.

 

XU AT THE PLATE

• The Musketeers collected five hits and five walks on the day, putting runners on base in six of the eight innings in which Xavier came to the plate.
• Nate Soria went 1-of-4 on the day, knocking in the Musketeers’ sole RBI with single in the second inning. The hit extended his streak to four straight games with a hit, and brought his NCAA Tournament RBI total to three, which accounts for all of the Musketeers’ RBIs through two games of the Louisville Regional.
• Chris Givin went 2-of-4 at the plate on the day. The sophomore has recorded a hit in 16 of the last 17 games.
• Conor Grammes went 1-of-3 at the plate, scoring a run and taking a walk in the fifth to help the Musketeers manufacture a run.
• Will LaRue accounted for a pair of walks, scoring the run on Soria’s RBI in the second inning after taking the walk to lead off the inning.
• Joe Gellenbeck scored the winning run for the Musketeers after an error put him on base.
• Matt Fallon went 1-of-2 at the plate with a walk.

HOW XU SCORED

SECOND: Will LaRue walked to lead off the second inning, and advanced to second on a ground out from Mitch Gallagher. Nate Soria picked up his third RBI of the regional with a single up the middle, bringing LaRue home to put Xavier up 1-0.

FOURTH: Joe Gellenbeck led off the inning with a ball deep to left, getting to second after the left fielder missed the catch. Gellenbeck advanced to third on a ground ball out to second from LaRue. Gallagher grounded the ball to third with one out. Radford went home on the fielder’s choice but the RU catcher dropped the throw, and Gellenbeck scored to put Xavier up 2-1.

FIFTH: Conor Grammes, Rylan Bannon and LaRue walked to load the bases with two outs. After a Radford pitching change, Grammes came home on a wild pitch to Gallagher to put Xavier up 3-1 before a RU strikeout ended the Musketeers’ threat.