Judson falls short in NAIA Opening Round

The Judson University baseball team battled to the championship game of the NAIA Opening Round tournament at Silver Cross Field in Joliet Saturday but fell short, losing to No. 1 seed York College (Neb.) 4-3.

The Eagles (46-17) rallied to beat Cumberland (Tenn.) 4-3 in 10 innings in their first game of the day, a win that put Judson in the position of having to beat York twice, once Saturday and then again Monday, to advance to the NAIA World Series.

Mark DeYoung’s double drove in Josh Raymond with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th against Cumberland. Raymond, who had led off the inning with a single, was 2-for-4 in the win, while Tony Rallo went 3-for-5 with a double and a home run for the Eagles. DeYoung also had 3 hits with 2 RBI.

Ryan Kendall picked up the win for Judson with 1 inning of relief. Andrew Bergman went the first 6 innings, allowing 8 hits and 2 earned runs, and Ryan Perez went 3 innings and allowed 1 earned run and 5 hits.

Judson then led York 3-1 going into the bottom of the eighth inning but gave up 3 runs and saw its season come to an end.

Rallo was 3-for-4 for the Eagles with another home run and 2 RBI, DeYoung drove in a run and Cameron Balough had a double.

Craig Lipp (9-3) took the loss for the Eagles.