No. 4-ranked Pittsburg State completed an impressive championship march with an 11-1 victory over Emporia State in the MIAA Postseason Baseball Tournament on Saturday afternoon at Wendell Simmons Field in Edmond, Okla.
The top-seeded Gorillas (43-9) set a school record for victories and outscored its opponents 45-14 in three seven-inning, run-rule contests. The conference tournament title is the second for the Gorillas, joining the 1999 championship team.
The Gorillas are the top seed in this week’s Central Region and will host a four-team, double-elimination sub-regional tournament beginning on Thursday.
Ty Blecha (4-2) and two relievers combined to pitch a two-hitter. Blecha allowed one infield hit, struck out three batters and walked two in four innings. Bradley Neill fanned one and gave up one hit – a home run to Frontenac product Logan Myers – in the fifth inning, and Cason Long fanned one and walked one in two hitless innings.
The Gorillas rapped 16 hits – seven for extra bases – and scored in every inning except the fifth.
Isaac Webb with 4-for-5 with a double, scored two runs and drove in two. His leadoff home run to left field, his 12th of the season, came in the Gorillas’ three-run sixth inning.
Dagen Brewer had two doubles and a single and drove in two runs, giving him 101 RBI for the season and 179 for his career, breaking the school record of 178 by Andrew Vogelbaugh from 2015-18.
Seth Dandridge had a triple among his three hits and had two RBI.
Cooper Wesslund went 2-for-3, scored three runs, and his two-run single to right field in the seventh inning ended the game. Wesslund was named the tournament’s most outstanding player with seven hits – two singles, three doubles and two homers – and 14 RBI in three games.
Other Gorillas on the all-tournament team were Bradyn McClure, Jadyn McNealy, Grant Nottlemann, Eric Bacon, Brewer and Webb.
Back-to-back doubles by Brewer and Webb gave the Gorillas a 1-0 lead in the first inning, and they added three runs in the second on Dandridge’s RBI triple to left-center field and Brewer’s two-out, two-run single to left.
Dandridge’s single to center in the third and Nottlemann’s double to right-center in the fourth each plated a run and gave the Gorillas a 6-0 advantage.
Myers slugged a homer to center field in the fifth, his fifth of the season for the sixth-seeded Hornets (37-16). He also was named to the all-tournament team.
Emporia St. 000 010 0 – 1 2 0
Pitt State 131 103 2 – 11 16 0
Jake Khasaempanth, Nick Woodcock (2), Owen Ruge (5), Rico Merio (5), Grant Huffman (5) and Dylan Brisbois; Ty Blecha, Bradley Neill (5), Cason Long (6) and Grant Nottlemann. W—Blecha 4-2. L—Khasaempanth 3-3. 2B—PSU: Dagen Brewer 2, Isaac Webb, Nottlemann, Cooper Wesslund. 3B—PSU: Seth Dandridge. HR—ESU: Logan Myers; PSU: Isaac Webb.
