Losing the Colonial Athletic Association baseball tournament didn’t keep the University of North Carolina Wilmington baseball team out of the NCAA tournament, as the Seahawks will face off against Duke this Friday in the first round.
It is the Diamond Hawks’ eighth trip to the season-ending, double-elimination national title tournament, the NCAAs. However, unlike for the 2015 tournament, the Seahawks aren’t going as CAA champions, as William & Mary powered by them in dramatic fashion on Sunday to claim the title of the tournament played in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
After posting the best winning percentage for the season among conference teams, the No.1 seeded Seahawks lost two consecutive games to second-seeded William & Mary in dropping the double-elimination tournament. Due to a rain delay, the Seahawks twice saw late-game heroics from the Tribe on Sunday, marked by timely home runs.
In fact, the Seahawks were just three outs away from repeating as CAA champs on Saturday, going into the ninth inning with a commanding 8-1 lead, when a late rally from William & Mary set up a tie game and extra innings, which weren’t played until the following day due to a rain delay.
When play resumed early Sunday, William & Mary hit a solo home run in the 12th inning to claim a 9-8 win over the Seahawks and set up a second game played that evening, since the double-elimination format meant UNCW had to lose twice to the Tribe.
That’s what happened later that evening, as the Tribe were again lifted by a late-game home run, this time a bases-loaded grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning. The four-run shot broke a 9-9 tie, and the Tribe added one more run later for the 14-9 win. It was the fourth win in a row for William & Mary, which lost its tournament opener, and moved its overall season record to 29-29.
The Seahawks ended the season with a 39-17 record, and thanks to an at-large bid from the NCAA, UNCW will be the No. 2 team in the four-team regional in Columbia, South Carolina. Host-team South Carolina is the region’s top seed. The winner to come out of the region will play another regional winner for a spot in the eight-team College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, in mid-June.
The seeding could be an opportunity for UNCW to enact a small measure of payback to Duke, as the Seahawks lost a close game to the Blue Devils in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament in March. The matchup is somewhat of a role reversal from the thrilling March Madness game; UNCW comes into this tournament with a higher seed and more established history of success, as Duke is the region’s third seed. The Blue Devils haven’t made the NCAA baseball tournament since 1961.
The two teams will play at 1 p.m. on Friday and will be streamed on ESPN 3, with audio streaming from the Seahawk Digital Network.
Leading the Seahawks this season was the record-setting combo of pitcher Ryan Foster and slugger Nick Feight.
At the plate, Feight paced the Seahawks by leading the nation with 85 runs batted in and led the conference with 19 home runs, earning him the CAA Player of the Year award. It’s the fifth time a UNCW player has won the Player of the Year award, and the first since 2008.
Foster was the nation’s winningest pitcher, with a 12-1 record on 14 starts, and shared the CAA’s Pitcher of the Year award with Northeastern’s Aaron Civale. Mark Scalf, in his 25th season for the Seahawks, won his seventh CAA Coach of the Year award.
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