Shawnee State eliminated the Blue Raiders of Lindsey Wilson College with a gutsy performance from starting pitcher Austin Dunfee (Pomeroy, OH). Pitching on two days rest Dunfee threw a complete game allowing zero earned runs on five hits leading the Bears to the Mid-South Championship Game in 6-4 victory.
Just the second batter into the ballgame Shawnee State's Cody Morrison (Spring, TX) hit what appeared to be a home run bending past the left field foul pole. After ruling the ball fair, the call was reversed; bringing Morrison back to the plate with a full count.
On the very next pitch, Morrison got a fastball down the middle and smashed the ball over the left field fence to jump start Shawnee State and give them an early 1-0 lead.
Shawnee State continued their momentum as Danny Gesick (Pickerington, OH) reached on a misplayed ball from the Blue Raiders and Colin Keim (Clinton, OH) reached on a walk.
After Adam Wamsley (Wheelersburg, OH) reached on a fielder's choice, Shawnee State scored again on another error from Lindsey Wilson to help give them a 2-0 advantage after the first inning.
With two outs in the second inning the Bears' Quentin Everman (Galloway, OH) reached Lindsey Wilson's third error and advanced to second. Morrison continued his hot hitting with a single through the left side scoring Everman and getting his second RBI in as many innings to jump out to a 3-0 lead.
Dunfee, who threw seven innings in the opener against St. Catharine's, held the Blue Raiders scoreless through the first three innings allowing only two hits.
Leading 3-0 in the fourth inning, Lindsey Wilson scored four runs on three hits as the Bears helped out with two costly errors coughing up the lead to trail 4-3 after four.
Shawnee State quickly responded as Keim reached on a walk and Wamsley reached on another error from Lindsey Wilson. Matt Jones (Greenup, KY) doubled down the right field line tying the game at 4-4.
The Bears would go on the score three runs on just one hit as they regained the lead 6-4.
It was Dunfee's day as he continued his brilliance putting zeros across the scoreboard. Coming into the game, Dunfee was seven strikeouts away from breaking the season record which was set by Andrew Carter in 2011 with 81.
In the seventh inning, Dunfee struck out three consecutive batters to surpass Carter's record. Dunfee finished with exactly seven strikeouts in the game to total 82 on the season in his 10thcomplete game of the season, which is also a Shawnee State record. With the complete game, Dunfee also broke Shawnee's record for innings pitched in a season, totalling 108.1, breaking Jason Burcham's record of 103.1.
The Bears will play Georgetown College at 6:00 p.m. in the MSC Championship Game. If Shawnee State wins tonight, an if necessary game will be played on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
