Great baseball season ends in second round of NAIA Nationals

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - A season of significant improvement came to a disappointing end for the Union baseball team Tuesday.

The fourth-seeded Bulldogs were knocked out of the NAIA National Opening Round, as second-seeded Texas Wesleyan seized control with a seven-run third inning, then held off a late rally to win 11-8 in an elimination game at William Carey University (Miss.)

ERRORS LOOM LARGE

Down 1-0 entering the third inning, the wheels fell off for the Union defense, which committed four errors before recording its first out. Those errors were directly responsible for five of the seven runs the Rams scored in the inning.

Union had a similar issue in the opening round Monday, committing three errors as Houston-Victoria brought home six runs in the seventh on its way to a 10-7 win.

COMEBACK FALL SHORT

The Union offense didn't surrender easily, as it cut an 8-0 deficit in half in the top of the fifth inning, the big hit coming from Angel Mendoza, who blasted a two-run home run over the 405-foot fence in centerfield. Mendoza finished his senior year with 25 home runs, a single-season program record.

With runners on first and second and one out in the sixth, the Bulldogs got aggressive, attempting a double-steal hit-and-run. And had batter Sammy Serrano's sharp line drive been a foot higher, it likely would have produced a run and put runners on first and third.

Instead, it found its way into the glove of Jose Sosa, who was able to turn an inning-ending double play. Sosa then compounded the Bulldogs' misery when he led off the sixth inning with a home run.

The Bulldogs also loaded the bases with no one out in the eighth, but only managed to score one run.

Mendoza, Serrano and David Mitchell all had two hits, with Mendoza and Logan Romasanta driving in two runs apiece.

BUILDING BLOCK

Though disappointed to see it end, there didn't seem to be much sadness in the Bulldog dugout following the game, and for good reason.

After a rough, 10-win 2022 season, Union won the AAC Tournament for the first time since 2006 and won 30 games for the first time since 2015, its 20-win improvement being the biggest turnaround in the history of the program.

As he begins preparations for his third year with the program, coach Chris Lewis believes even better things are ahead.

"You just kind of continue to set the bar," said Lewis, whose team defeated six ranked opponents this season. "That's the ultimate goal to continue to move the program forward and be a regular in the postseason. Now it's recruiting time. We've got to continue to get better in all facets of the game."