Panthers Do It The Hard Way, 2017 SLIAC Champions

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The Greenville College Panthers did it the hard way, winning the 2017 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Baseball Championship after dropping their first game of the tournament. The Panthers become the first team in conference history to achieve the feat of winning the tournament title after dropping their opening game, winning four straight elimination games including the final two against Westminster College who defeated the Panthers in the opening game.

After being shutout for just the second time this season in their tournament opener Greenville's offense came alive, scoring 42 runs over their final four games of the tournament. For the third straight year it was Greenville and Westminster in the SLIAC Championship game, and for the third straight year, the two teams played in a winner take all game.

Westminster jumped on top early with two runs in both the second and third innings. Nick Cessna started the scoring with a two-run home run in the top of the second inning. He struck again the following frame, following a Ryan Gvillo RBI double with a RBI hit of his own. 

On the final day of a long tournament weekend, both head coaches were piecing together a pitching staff on Sunday. That was evident when the Blue Jays starter Nick Bohanan, making his first start of the season, was lifted in the bottom of the third to prevent a Panther rally. With two runners on Justin Riggins, who had worked three innings last night, ended the Panthers rally and kept them off the board. After scoring two runs in each of the previous two innings, Westminster was held off the board in the fourth despite a two-out single by Nick Bohlmann.

The Panthers offense started to show signs of life with two more hits in the bottom of the fourth inning but were once again unable to push a run across. The Panthers bats finally broke through in the fifth with five runs on four hits. Jesse Getz started the rally with a single and after an error and walk the Panthers' Sam Hodges stepped to the plate with bases loaded. Hodges delivered with a two-run single. Shane Olmsted cut the score to 4-3 on a RBI single of his own. With bases loaded the Panthers took advantage of back to back wild pitches, scoring the tying and go-ahead runs.

Westminster answered back in the sixth when Blake Strebler doubled in Bohlmann and Adam Mundle to make the score 6-5 for the Blue Jays. That score remained unchanged until the seventh inning when Greenville's Danny Strohm ripped a solo home run down the left field line that stayed inside the foul pole, tying the game at 6-6. The score would not stay the same long as just five batters later SLIAC Player of the Year Travis Ralls drove in two runs with a single to make the score 8-6.

The Blue Jays offense threatened all day long, putting at least one runner on in every inning except the seventh including a two-out single by Zach Eisenreich in the top of the ninth. But despite getting the tying run up to the plate the Blue Jays were unable to muster anything against Panther reliever Klaiton Wolff.

Both teams used four pitchers on the day with Austin Rexroad picking up the win for Greenville by going two scoreless innings while Wolff notched his ninth save of the season. Greenville finished with 11 hits in the game with Strohm leading the way with three. Westminster recorded nine hits, three off the bat of Ryan Gvillo. 

Greenville's win is the second SLIAC Tournament Title in program history and they earn the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference automatic bid into the 2017 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.