GRAYSON, Ky. --- The Asbury baseball team (28-14) met up with Oakland City University (31-23) one more time on Thursday, this time for the NCCAA Mideast Regional Championship. Oakland City got out to a 6-1 lead but Asbury completed their comeback with a 3 run 8th inning to win the championship over Oakland City, 11-10.

Holten Handel got the start for Asbury and provided 3.2 innings of solid work. Handel allowed no earned runs and struck out 5, but an Oakland City rally in the 4th removed him from the game. Caleb Poll came on for the second day in a row to give Asbury 4 outs before handing the ball to the freshman Nate McClellan who settled the game down.

McClellan pitched 2.1 innings with no runs and only 3 hits allowed. Colton Perkins also got two big outs for AU to close out the 8th inning, and then it was Jackson Cole in the 9th. Cole shut the door again on Oakland City for 3 consecutive outs and his second save in as many days. 

Asbury's early 1-0 lead from a Matthew Baker RBI was erased in the top of the 4th when Oakland City added 6 runs to take a 6-1 lead. AU used three pitchers in the inning to minimize the hurt, but the Asbury offense was about to get things going. 

AU scored 4 runs of their own in the bottom of the 4th to get all the way within 1 (5-6), making the 4th inning a total 10 runs for both teams. The inning was capped by a Walker Paris 2 RBI single that scored Alec Lush and Cam Weaver. 

Oakland City pulled back away from AU in the 5th on a 2-run blast to take a 8-5 lead. Asbury answered in the bottom half with 2 more runs, a solo blast from Matthew Baker and an RBI from Noah Brown (7-8 Oakland City). Oakland City again extended their lead in the 6th by scoring 2 runs, grabbing the 10-7 lead. Asbury scratched 1 run in the 7th from a Cam Weaver RBI single to shorten their deficit to 8-10 before they struck in the 8th. 

Walker Paris led off the 8th with a double and was then scored by Kaiden Zacharias. After a walk from Matthew Baker, Nathaniel Frank used a squeeze bunt to score the tying run at 10-10. Two batters later it was Noah Brown shooting a ball through the right side to score the game winning run, Wade Everley, 11-10 AU. Jackson Cole handled the 9th inning getting three consecutive outs as AU swept the tournament to win the NCCAA Mideast Championship. 

* Walker Paris was 3-5 with 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored

* Nate McClellan, Colton Perkins, and Jackson Cole covered the final 4.0 innings for AU, not allowing a run to score (Perkins with his first win of the season and Cole with his second save in two days)

* Matthew Baker, Noah Brown, and Cam Weaver each had 2 hits and 2 RBIs (Baker a solo home run)

* Asbury's defense committed only 1 error, Oakland City committed 4

"I feel like today we proved that no game is ever out of reach. We got contributions from everyone today and it was a great day for our team and our program."

     * Senior Outfielder, Kaiden Zacharias

Asbury will receive an automatic bid to the NCCAA National Tournament in Kansas City, MO with this Mideast Regional Championship. The tournament will be May 20-24, a bracket and further details will be coming soon