The St. Thomas (Fla.) Bobcats denied the Georgia Gwinnett baseball team a return trip to the Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series with an 8-2 victory on Friday in the championship game of the Opening Round Lawrenceville Bracket.
A day after winning twice to extend the tournament to a final game, the top-seeded and fourth-ranked Grizzlies came up just shy of making it back once again to Lewiston, Idaho, concluding the 2015 season at 50-14 overall.
The third-seeded and 20th-ranked Bobcats (44-16) leaned on starting pitcher Marcos Barrios once more, who earned his second win in four days by going 7.1 innings.
The Grizzlies got on the board in the first inning on Kyler Timmerman's two-run home run, but were held scoreless over the final eight frames in the defeat.
Timmerman finished the day 3-for-3, while Jereid Woods added a 3-for-4 effort and Michael Hodorowski had a 2-for-4 day.
The Bobcats- the designated home team- wasted little time in answering Timmerman's first-inning blast, belting five hits and scoring four times in the bottom of the inning against starter Jeremy Holcomb. Ryan Minteer came in and ended the inning on the mound for GGC, plus added a shutout frame in the second.
A solo home run by Paul Chacin started off the third inning for the Bobcats, who extended the lead to 5-2. Christian Turnipseed then entered the game for the Grizzlies with two outs in the third, and lasted until the seventh.
Turnipseed struck out five over 4.0 innings of work, helping the Grizzlies stay within striking distance much of the way.
Timmerman laced his third hit of the day into center field with one out in the sixth, but a double play lineout into center and throw to first ended the inning.
A one-out single and a walk put two aboard for GGC in the seventh, but a fly out and a strikeout ended the threat.
St. Thomas then padded its lead with three runs in the bottom of the inning. An RBI single, a score on a Grizzly throwing error on a double-play attempt, and a final RBI single accounted for the 8-2 margin.
Two more runners reached base with one out in the eighth for GGC as the Grizzlies found the Bobcat bullpen, but a strikeout and a fly ball kept the Grizzlies from closing the gap.
Woods and Ernesto Vazquez each had singles in the ninth inning before a fly out to left field ended the game and sent the Bobcats into their celebration.
Senior Ty Abbott, who went 1-for-4 Friday, finished the tournament 11-for-20 with five RBIs and five runs scored. Watlington and Timmerman also led the Grizzlies with five runs scored each while Vazquez and Hodorowski both had six RBIs.
Turnipseed, Minteer, Andy Threat and Joseph Boatright were each called upon multiple times throughout the Lawrenceville Bracket while Davis Adkins' nine strikeouts led all pitchers.
The Grizzlies finish the season reaching the 50-win mark for the second consecutive year, having claimed a No. 1 ranking in the NAIA Baseball Coaches' Top 25 Poll for the first time in school history in the process.
