Baseball Jim Powers - SAC Assistant Commissioner

Mid-America Christian Advances to the NAIA National Baseball Final Site for the First Time in Program History

Oklahoma City – For the first time in program history, Mid-America Christian has advanced to the final site of the 69th Annual Avista NAIA Baseball National Championship after defeating the defending national champions on back-to-back days in Shreveport, La.
 
The Evangels are the first Sooner Athletic Conference team to advance to the NAIA final site since Science & Arts played in Lewiston, Idaho, back in 2019, where they placed third in the tournament.
 
The SAC was also well represented in the opening round, as Nelson and Texas Wesleyan each played into the third day of the opening round. The Lions went 2-2 in the tournament, which included a 9-6 victory over top-seeded Bellevue before they fell to the Bears in an elimination game 3-2 on Wednesday afternoon. 
 
The Rams fell to Madonna in the first game in Lincoln, Neb., 6-1, before defeating Oakland City 17-11 on Tuesday, in an elimination contest. Texas Wesleyan then dropped out of the tournament as Madonna defeated the Rams 6-2 on Wednesday afternoon.
 
Mid-America Christian opened their opening round in Shreveport, La., with a 3-2 victory over Loyola. Loyola opened the scoring with a run in the third inning before Sammy Hallada hit an RBI single up the middle to score Eiljah Lee to even the score at 1-1 after three innings. Nick Hill broke the tie in the home half of the fourth as he lifted a home run over the center field wall to give MACU a 2-1 advantage. Adam Hanan drove in the eventual winning run in the eighth with an RBI single to left center to give the Evangels a 3-1 lead. Loyola scored a run in the top of the ninth, but Liam Taft forced a flyout to center to claim his 13th save of the year.
 
The Evangels then broke a close game wide open with crooked numbers in the sixth and seventh innings to defeat the top-seeded Pilots 8-2 on Tuesday evening. Nick Hill led the way for MACU as he was 2-for-4 with four runs batted in and two runs scored himself, as he had a pair of home runs in the contest.
 
Mid-America Christian would face LSU Shreveport again after the Pilots shaved off elimination by beating Oklahoma Wesleyan 6-5 in 11 innings to open action on Wednesday. The Evangels grabbed a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Hill hit a two-run double and scored on a Hanan single to take an early advantage. The Pilots answered with four runs in the top of the second to take a 4-3 lead that they held until the home half of the sixth. After MACU loaded the bases, Hanan cleared the base paths with a double to left to put the Evangels on top 6-4, and Tuane Cope added an insurance run with an RBI single to score Hanan to propel MACU to a 7-4 lead. Byron Madero entered the game in the seventh and threw three innings of one-hit baseball to earn his first save of the year, while Carlos Uribe garnered the victory after six innings of work.
 
Mid-America Christian will move on to Lewiston, Idaho, and open play for the Red Banner on either Friday, May 22, or Saturday, May 23. The final site field will be re-seeded this weekend to set the 10-team bracket.