HICKORY, N.C. -- With a win today, the Lenoir-Rhyne baseball team would advance to the South Atlantic Conference Tournament Championship game for the first time since 2001. The easiest path for the Bears to the championship is winning at 11 a.m. and going into the title game with a 3-0 record. However, standing in there way is defending national champion and current No. 1 team in the nation Wingate. The loser of LR/Wingate would play at 6 p.m. tonight with the winner of that game going into the championship needing to win twice on Monday in the double-elimination tournament. 

Lenoir-Rhyne (42-10) advanced to this semifinal against Wingate thanks to a walkoff base hit from Drew Yniesta at 11:06 p.m. last night, leaving the Bears a short turnaround for first pitch at 11 a.m. this morning. The Bears trailed Catawba 2-0 into the eighth inning and only mustered two hits against the Indians starter but LR tied the game with a pair of runs in the eighth and got three consecutive hits to start the ninth and win in thrilling fashion to improve to 2-0 in tournament play. Earlier, LR bested Queens 8-0 on a complete game shutout by Josh Lanham to give LR its first SAC tournament win since 2006 and end a nine-game losing streak in SAC tourney play. 

Wingate (44-6) has also had some late game heroics in the SAC Tournament. In their opening contest, the top-seeded Bulldogs trailed Carson-Newman 4-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. The inning start with a harmless fly ball that was lost in the sun by the shortstop and fell in for a hit. Five batters later, Andrew McKay knocked in the game-winning run with a 2-out single to complete the 3-run rally and give Wingate a 5-4 win. Wingate would also trail in the next round against Queens, falling behind 8-5 in the sixth inning, However, in the bottom of the sixth, Queens erupted for a 4-run, 4-hit frame and took a 9-8 advantage. The Bulldog bullpen blanked Queens over the final three innings to come away with a second one-run victory in tournament play. 

Dating back to last year, Wingate has won 11 of their last 12 postseason games, including a 5-3 win over Central Missouri in the national championship. Looking to put an end to that streak is projected starter Austin Edwards who is coming off a SAC Pitcher of the Week performance in the final week of the regular season. Edwards has found another gear in his final two starts, going 11 innings and allowing just four hits and one run while striking out 18 batters. In the regular season finale, Edwards pitched LR into a top four seed with a win over Lincoln Memorial by throwing all seven innings and giving up three hits to go with 11 strikeouts. Edwards has been unscored upon in three of his last five outings and has posted 72 strikeouts in 52.2 innings on the year. 

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