YC Baseball - Regular Season and MCAC Tournament Champs!

York College baseball pounded the No. 2 seed Oklahoma Wesleyan University Eagles, winning Wednesday's MCAC Championship game 18-8. The Panthers won all three of their games in the conference tournament, outhitting their opponents 39-23. Congratulations to Head Coach Nick Harlan (MCAC Coach of the Year) and Associate Head Coach Brian Walth for securing the Panthers' first baseball conference championship!

With the win, the Panthers advance to the NAIA National Championship Opening Round in Lubbock, Texas. The tournament will begin on May 18, at Hays Field on the Lubbock Christian University campus. York College is the #2 seed in the Lubbock Bracket, and their first game will be against Avila University at 2:30 pm on Tuesday. To see the NAIA pairings for the opening round of the tournament, click here.

Last week, when Bellevue University reported that they had an ineligible player on the team, an NAIA ruling on the infraction declared all of their 2010 season as forfeit. This made York College the regular season champions and the No. 1 seed in the MCAC Tournament.

The Panthers won their first two games on Tuesday, a 2-1 nail-biter over College of the Ozarks and an 8-4 win in their first game against Oklahoma Wesleyan.

In the championship game, the Oklahoma Wesleyan Eagles struck first as they scored a single run in the top of the second. The Panthers matched that when Matt Berru singled and pinch runner Travis Gibson stole second and eventually scored on a throwing error. York crossed the plate four times in the third and scored another in the fourth to lead 6-1. The Eagles would not go quietly as they responded with five runs of their own in the top of the fifth, tying the game at 6-6.

The Panther bats exploded over the next three innings for 12 runs and 15 hits as they put the game out of reach for the Eagles. York pounded out 21 hits on the day to Oklahoma Wesleyan's 8. Leaders at the plate were Kris Little and Justin Lunday with four hits each, while Josh Warren and Nick Nguyen contributed three hits apiece. Sam Feiner added a pair of hits and crossed home plate four times in the win.

Alex Lowther started the game for the Panthers and went five innings allowing four hits and six runs while striking out two. He was followed by Chris Dempsey who worked one frame and gave up four hits and two runs. Mike Becker was credited with the save as he gave the Panthers three perfect innings with three strikeouts recorded.

The Panthers set an all-time YC record in wins on the season as they are currently 44-7.

The baseball team cleaned up on conference honors including MCAC Player of the Year - Justin Lunday, MCAC Pitcher of the Year - Bruce Amende, and MCAC Coach of the Year - Nick Harlan.