2007 SCAC Divisional Baseball Tournament

Special thanks to Bill Wagner, DePauw University Sports Information who contributed this article

MILLINGTON, Tenn. - Southwestern University became the first school to qualify for the 2007 SCAC Baseball Championships, defeating DePauw University 8-7 to sweep its best-of-three series with the Tigers at USA Millington Field.

After DePauw rallied to tie the score at 7 in the top of the ninth, Southwestern's Matt Clark drilled an RBI single to right center to plate Brad Culling with the winning run.

The win ensures that Southwestern (19-22) will have one of the four slots available for next weekend's SCAC tournament, which the Pirates are hosting in Georgetown.

DePauw (23-16) battled back from a 6-1 deficit and tied the score in the ninth, but Southwestern plated the game-winning run in the bottom of the inning and eliminated the Tigers from the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference baseball tournament.

DePauw trailed 6-1, but scored two on Eric Reese's two-run single in the fourth. The Pirates made it 7-3 in the sixth on Brad Culling's solo homer to left.

In the eighth, the Tigers closed the gap to 7-5 on Taylor Hoffman's bases loaded walk which scored Drew Holy and Reese's groundout which brought home Justin Weiner. The inning ended on a double play as DePauw's Jack Gavin was thrown out at the plate on Ryan Bellomy's throw.

Chris Newman led off the ning with a single to left, moved to second on a balk and to third on a wild pitch. Matt Kleine then singled home Newman. After Adam Ford's sacrifice bunt advanced Kleine to second, pinch-hitter Jon Newman singled him to third. Justin Weiner reached base on a Southwestern infield fielding error which allowed Kleine to score and tie the game at 7-7.

Culling was hit by reliever Derek Bryant's first pitch and moved to second on Mark Noggle's sacrifice bunt. Eric Gonzales drew a walk and Paul Rodenhouse replaced Bryant on the hill. Matt Clark then delivered the game-winning single.

DePauw took a 1-0 lead second on Hoffman's RBI single, but the Tigers fell behind in the third when John Wooten and Richard Falcone each delivered run-scoring singles to make it 2-1. With two outs and the bases loaded, Jamie Herrmann reached on a dropped popup which also scored two. Culling then followed with a two-run double which made it 6-1.

The Tigers totaled 13 hits led by Kleine's three and two each by Weiner and Hoffman. Culling had two of Southwestern's seven hits and drove in three. Bryant dropped to 2-2 with the relief loss after John Tschantz pitched eight innings and allowed just three earned runs. Matt Gruetzner improved to 2-1.

DePauw returns to action on Thursday, May 3, when they host Franklin in a 4 p.m. single game.