Forgotten Five Baseball at the Cox Diamond Invitational
Aluminum bat season is in full swing with teams across the country gearing up for conference play. Neutral site retreats are common for the February through March schedules as they give team’s chances to play competitive games against good competition.
The City of Pensacola, Florida and beautiful Blue Wahoo Stadium hosted the fourth annual Cox Diamond Invitational this weekend. Seton Hall, Southeastern Louisiana, South Alabama and Troy all took park in the three day round robin tournament that saw the Southeastern Lions leave with the weekend’s best record at 3-0.
The theme of the Invitational was to leave the starting pitcher in the game for a couple of outs longer than he should have stayed. A total of 33 runs were scored in the fourth through sixth innings. The other six innings? 21 runs.
The sorority girls sitting in front of me with the “arrive late-leave early” strategy were quite possibly the most efficient fans in attendance.
The first game was between the Seton Hall Pirates and the Troy Trojans on Friday afternoon. With the game tied at two, Troy first baseman Justin Friend launched a three-run homer to right center to put Troy up 5-3. The Trojans added one more run and went to the hotel with its first and only win of the weekend.
Next up on Friday was a matchup between the two directional schools in a game that ended walk-off style. South Alabama built a 3-0 lead to start the game behind shortstop Drew LaBounty’s two-run double in the fifth. Southeastern responded in the bottom half of the inning with a home run from outfielder Drew Avans. Avans and Friend registered the only two home runs of the tournament. The noted pitcher’s park, not so much because of the walls but the fact that the outfield sits on Pensacola Bay, stalled balls in the air for the rest of the weekend.
Avans and Friend registered the only two home runs of the tournament. The noted pitcher’s park, nestled against Pensacola Bay and its wind currents, stalled balls in the air for the rest of the weekend.
Southeastern tied the game in the next inning with a single followed by a wild pitch. Each team went scoreless over the next couple innings until the final stanza. In the bottom of the ninth with runners on corners, Avans played hero and drove in the winning run with a center field single.
Southeastern carried its momentum into Saturday’s game with the program’s first ever game with Seton Hall. The Lions never let up in a 13-1 drubbing of the Pirates, with infielders Taylor Schwaner and Carson Crites combining for seven RBI’s in the game.
Pitcher Corey Gaconi rebounded from his poor outing against Rice, in which he allowed four runs in five innings, and pitched seven scoreless innings with six strikeouts.
The nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader featured a rare non-conference bout between in-state rivals South Alabama and Troy in front of a weekend high of nearly 2,000 fans. The Jaguars won the contest 6-4 behind a live-bat sixth inning.
Down 2-1 in the sixth, Troy put together a two-out rally with four hits and three runs to take a 4-2 lead. South responded immediately with four runs on four hits in the bottom of the inning. LaBounty reached base three of four plate appearances in the game and hit .500/.583 with four RBI’s on the weekend. The Jaguars held Troy scoreless the rest of the way and won what ended up being the third place tie-breaker.
The Jags met with Seton Hall on Sunday morning and had their late comeback fall just short. The Pirates took a three-run advantage in the third inning after drawing a bases-loaded walk and following it up with a double to bring in two runs.
South put a pair baserunners across the plate in the eight to make the score 3-2. The Jags had runners on first and second in the ninth but grounded into a double-play to end the contest.
Southeastern clinched a first place finish on Sunday with a 5-4 win over the Trojans on a windy Sunday evening.
Troy opened the game with four consecutive singles followed by a walk to take an early 3-0 lead. The Trojans added one more in the fourth before the Lions raised up the rally flag and took control of the game.
Avans plated his team-leading 13th run of the year on a sac fly to put Southeastern on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Outfielder Ryan Byers then hit his second double of the season that brought in two runs to bring the Lions within one.
Southeastern scored a run in both the seventh and eighth innings to claim a lead it would not lose. Pitcher Josh Green pitched the final three outs to register his first save of the season.
No MVP’s were given out at the conclusion of the tournament so I have taken the liberty of announcing the MVP’s of the Cox Diamond Invitational myself.
MVP: Drew Avans, Southeastern Louisiana- .500/.600 1 HR 3 RBI 5 R
SP MVP: Corey Gaconi, Southeastern Louisiana- 7.0 IP 0 R 6 K .29 WHIP 1 W
Relief MVP: Ryan Testani, Seton Hall- 3.0 IP 0 R 0 K .67 WHIP 1 SV