Sun Conference

LEWISTON, Ida. - The Embry-Riddle Eagles earned their second straight walk-off win when Aaron Glaum singled home Branden Roper-Hubbert in the bottom of the 12th inning to give ERAU a 3-2 win over Tennessee Wesleyan in the very first game of the 2010 Avista-NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. The Eagles improved to 45-17 while the Bulldogs fell to 46-17 overall.

Austin Quinn pitched a tremendous game for ERAU, going 11.0 innings, allowing just two runs (one earned) on seven hits with nine strikeouts. The 11.0 innings was a single game record for Blue and Gold pitchers all-time in the 21-year history of the program.

Quinn's first pitch at 8:31 a.m. was a strike and he didn't stop at one, getting Ryan Santos to swing and miss at strike three. Quinn got Johnny Smith to ground out to J.T. Warmoth at second base before Cody Gaskill blooped a single over Warmoth's head. However, Max Loveland flied the first pitch he saw to Dane Beaudette in right center to end the visitor half of the first inning.

The Eagles went three-up and three-down in their half of the first inning as Bulldogs' starter Hamilton Bennett struck out two ERAU batters.

Quinn struck out Rafael Carlot on three pitches to begin the second inning, but Brad Pippa took the first pitch he saw back up the middle for Teneesee Wesleyan's second hit of the contest. Kutris Bramlett grounded into a fielder's choice that retired Pippa at second. David Lindsay lined a ball right to Tyler Robbins at short to end the inning.

Bennett sat down another three Eagle batters in the second inning, facing the minimum six batters through the first two innings. C.J. McElroy led off the third inning with a single back up the middle, but a fly ball off the bat of Santos was caught by Mike Jutkiewicz to record the first out of the third inning. Smith followed McElroy's example by lining a ball past Quinn and through the middle to put runners on first and second with just one out. But Quinn got Gaskill to fly out to center field and Loveland to strike out swinging to escape the jam.

Jutkiewicz was the first Eagle to reach base after an error by Bennett put him on first, but Robbins immediately ended the inning by popping the first pitch he faced down the right field line where it was caught by the Bulldog right fielder.

For the second straight inning the Bulldogs got their leadoff hitter on base when Carlot smoked a ball right at Steve Sabins at third and hustled down the first base line to reach safely. But a great 5-4-3 double play retired both Carlot and Pippa after Warmoth made a great throw from second base and Branden Roper-Hubbert made an equally great pick at first to record the double play. Following the double play ERAU made their first error of the game when Robbins flew a throw over Roper-Hubbert's head to put Bramlett on second base. However, Quinn once again was able to avoid any damage on the scoreboard by getting Lindsay to ground out to Sabins.

Roper-Hubbert grabbed ERAU's first base hit in the fourth inning, hitting a dribbler down the third base line that forced a tough throw from Carlot that he was able to beat out. Sabins hit a 1-2 pitch in front of the center fielder in the next at-bat to put Blue and Gold runners at first and second with two outs. But Bennett was able to get Aaron Glaum to foul out to end the threat and the fourth inning.

Warmoth flashed his glove again in the fifth inning, making a nice backhand stop and throw across his body right to Roper-Hubbert at first to retire Santos for the second out after McElroy popped up to Robbins for the first out. Quinn rounded out his first 1-2-3 inning with a groundout from Smith to end the top of the fifth inning.

Bennett kept Embry-Riddle in check in the home half of the fifth inning, going three-up, three-down with two strikeouts.

Quinn returned the favor, recording his second consecutive 1-2-3 inning in the top half of the sixth.

ERAU got their first leadoff hitter on in the sixth when Robbins drew a walk after fouling off three pitches from Bennett. A sacrifice bunt from Dane Beaudette moved Robbins to second base and brought up Austin Goolsby. Goolsby was unable to capitalize on a 2-1 count and popped up a ball to the Bulldogs' shortstop to record the second out of the inning. Roper-Hubbert swung and missed at strike three to end the Eagle inning.

Quinn only got stronger as the game wore on, going three-up, three-down for the third straight inning, including two strikeouts in the seventh inning.

After Sabins led the seventh inning off with a fly ball to the Tennessee Wesleyan right fielder, Glaum recorded ERAU's third hit of the contest with a liner to left field. Matt Tomaszewski and Glaum executed the hit-and-run to perfection as Tomaszewski hit through the right side as Glaum was moving on the pitch and was able to reach third safely. Warmoth drove in the game's first run with a hard hit ball towards the Bulldog shortstop. Santos threw the ball to second baseman Gaskill but Gaskill was unable to make the throw as Glaum was able to cross home and give ERAU a 1-0 lead. A single from Jutkiewicz and a drawn walk by Robbins loaded the bases for Beaudette. Beaudette swung at the first pitch Bennett threw and flied out to shallow center field to end the inning.

The Eagles gave their run back to the Bulldogs in the eighth inning after an error and wild pitch put Santos on third base and a sacrifice fly from Smith tied the game at 1-1 with that unearned run.

The Blue and Gold faced a new pitcher in their half of the eighth inning in the form of Jason Ferguson. Goolsby chopped Ferguson's first pitch over the first baseman's glove to reach base safely for the first time in the game. Roper-Hubbert was hit by a Ferguson pitch in the next at-bat to put Eagle runners on first and second with no outs. Sabins hit a slow roller that was fielded by Ferguson and thrown to the third baseman Carlot. Carlot appeared to have come off the base but John Libretti, Goolsby's courtesy runner, was called out by the third base umpire. After a fly-out and that moved the runners to second and third, pinch-hitter Jeff Lemon was intentionally walked to load the bases before Warmoth chopped a ball back to Ferguson that retired Sabins at third base to end the inning with no Eagle runners crossing home.

Jutkiewicz started the bottom of the ninth inning with a single through the right side but after being moved to second on a fielder's choice from Robbins was tagged out by the third baseman when Goolsby chopped a ball straight to Carlot to end the ninth inning and send the game into extras.

The extra-inning affair marked the first time since 1992 that the first game of the NAIA World Series went more innings than the regular nine.Quinn struck out two in the top of the tenth and got McElroy to fly out to right center to send the game to the bottom of the tenth tied at one run apiece.

Ferguson was able to get all three Eagle batters in the tenth inning to put the ball in and play right to Bulldog fielders as the game moved to the 11th still knotted at 1-1.

Quinn went out for his 11th inning of work and got Santos to fly out to Jutkiewicz on the warning track, followed by a ground ball to Robbins and shortstop to retire Smith. Gaskill ended the top of the 11th inning with a fly-out to right center.

Lemon continued the trend of fly-outs to center field as he popped a ball up to Loveland to start the ERAU half of the 11th. ERAU looked in good shape when Warmoth doubled down the right field line, but a strike out and ground out ended the Eagle threat in the 11th.

Phillip Reamy entered the game in the 12th after Quinn surrendered a leadoff single to Loveland. After Loveland stole second Reamy battled back from a 3-0 count to fan Carlot for the first out. Reamy was called for a balk to move Loveland to third and a sacrifice fly from Pippa gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the game at 2-1.

Josh Krummel was called upon to pinch-hit for Beaudette to lead off the bottom of the 12th inning and was able to reach first on a fielding error by the Bulldogs' shortstop. Beaudette immediately re-entered and stole second base to put the tying run on second base for Goolsby. Unfortunately for the catcher he was caught looking at strike three for the first out of the 12th inning. Roper-Hubbert was once again the hero for the Blue and Gold, smoking a ball through the right side to score Beaudette before going to second on the throw from the right fielder. Tennessee Wesleyan brought in Justin Crowell to face Sabins, but Sabins won the battle hitting a ball to center field that wasn't far enough to score Roper-Hubbert who advanced to third. Glaum came through with the RBI single that scored Roper-Hubbert for the Eagles' second straight walk-off win.

Quinn received a no-decision despite his gem, and Reamy was credited with his fourth win of the season with no losses.

Glaum finished 2-for-6 with the game-winning RBI and a run scored as Roper-Hubbert went 2-for-5 with an RBI and scoring the winning run.

The Eagles advance to play Cumberland (Tenn.) at 3 p.m. (PDT) on Saturday in the No. 2 v. No. 7 matchup. The Eagles and Bulldogs did battle three times in the regular season, as the Bulldgos took two-out-of three from ERAU in Tennessee.