May 15, 2012
San Jacinto College edged past Navarro College Tuesday night 7-6 in game seven of the NJCAA Region XIV Baseball Tournament at 91²Ö¿â. Originally underway on Monday evening, the game was delayed until Tuesday night due to rain.
Weather issues plagued the game Tuesday as well, as strong intermittent lightning forced officials to call two more delays. The match up took 12 full innings and was the third game of the tournament to go into extra innings.
San Jacinto will face the winner of game eight (Blinn versus Galveston), the only other undefeated team, on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
Navarro got on the board first with one run in the top of the first. They added three more unanswered runs in the top of the second.
San Jacinto put one run up in the bottom of the third and then two in the bottom of the fifth, leaving the score 4-3 in favor of Navarro.
Action heated up again in the seventh as Navarro added another run to their lead in the top of the inning. San Jacinto fought back to score two runs in the bottom of the seventh, tying the game 5-5.
Both teams added single runs in the eighth, pushing the tie to 6-6. No runs were scored in the ninth, moving the game to extra innings. No runs were scored in the tenth or eleventh, despite San Jacinto having the bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth.
The bottom of the 12th proved to be more productive for San Jacinto. A single and an error put two runners on base. Justin Byrd managed to steal home after a wild pitch to win the game for San Jacinto.
Reggie Wilson and Byrd led the offense for San Jacinto with two hits each. Galli Cribbs also contributed a double. AJ Glasshof got the win with five innings pitched, giving up two hits, one run, walking one and striking out five.
Jake Sutton and Colton Besett led the Navarro bats with two each, including a double by Besett. Alex Dumaine got the loss with .1 inning pitched, giving up no runs. He walked one and struck out one
Navarro?s loss has them playing Texarkana College at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to fight to stay alive in the tournament.
Fans can follow the action live at ntcceagles.com/tourney.
