The University of Charleston's baseball team came up just short of its quest for an automatic berth into the NCAA Division II baseball championships, falling 13-6 to Shepherd in the Mountain East Conference tournament championship game.
The loss came after a run in which the Golden Eagles, who clinched the final spot for the conference tournament in the final weekend of the regular season, won four consecutive games. That stretch included two wins earlier in the day on Sunday - an 18-2 victory over West Virginia Wesleyan and a 13-11 triumph against Shepherd - before coming within a game of their first-ever MEC title.
"We certainly had an uphill challenge getting into the loser's bracket right out of the gate, but our guys never quit when their backs were against the wall," UC coach Andrew Wright said. "To have to play four games in a span of 24 hours and have to win all four if we wanted to win, we knew it was a tall task. It was great to get to see what our guys were made of, and they certainly didn't back down and kept fighting until the end."
With both teams playing several games over the course of the last few days, the final game of the tournament quickly became a slugfest. UC and Shepherd combined for 29 hits in the game, and they spent the early innings trading blows back and forth looking to hold on to the momentum.
It appeared Charleston was able to do that, scoring five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to pull ahead 6-3. But the Rams came right back the following inning - pushing across six runs against the Golden Eagles and scoring 10 unanswered through the rest of the game to win their second consecutive MEC championship.
Ryan Potts, who earned a win in relief against UC earlier in the tournament, threw the final five innings, allowing one hit and no runs, to help lead Shepherd to the win Sunday.
"It was difficult and we did what we could to manage our guys," Wright said. "It definitely was a new experience and something that we definitely are going to be able to build off of with the way we finished this tournament."
There was no shortage of offense the rest of the day for Charleston, as the Golden Eagles scored 37 runs in their three games on Sunday. UC got 21 hits to go with a gem from freshman starting pitcher Jonathan Carr, who threw a complete game against WVWC.
Lee Carneal was one of several UC players to have a big day at the plate in the three games. The graduate transfer shortstop finished the day with nine hits and drove in 10 runs, hitting a double, triple and home run.
UC also got a couple of home runs from Steven Davis and Nick Wilson hit a 3-run home run and had a bases-clearing double in the final game against Shepherd.
"We talked to our guys about how when you're in the playoffs, it comes down to who pitches the best and who can take advantage of mistakes and get timely hits," Wright said. "I felt like our guys did a great job of competing at the plate the whole tournament, putting our guys in a great position to win games by giving our pitchers as much run support as we got."
Charleston's 34 wins was a program best and more than doubled the 16 wins it won a season ago.
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.