Presbyterian baseball team wins first Big South Championship in program history

The Presbyterian College baseball team rallied with two runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth inning to stun No. 1 Seed Campbell by the score of 8-5 in the 2021 Ingles Big South Baseball Championship. Presbyterian has earned the automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Baseball Championship NOTABLES- Presbyterian recorded the baseball program’s first Big South Championship as it was just its second appearance in the title game. PC had played in the 2017 title game.- It is the Blue Hose’s second Big South Championship as an athletic department during the 2020-21 season as men’s tennis won the league’s title last month in Charlotte. – The Blue Hose were led offensively by Eric Toth who had two hits including his eighth home run of the season and also drove in four runs.- Toth also finished the championship off for the Blue Hose recording a perfect ninth inning with a strikeout to record his eighth save of the 2021 season. He moved into sole possession of third in the Blue Hose single-season DI record book with his eighth save on Saturday. – Zacchaeus Rasberry added a hit and a pair of RBIs in the contest. Rasberry extended his reached base streak to 22 games in a row. – Alex Flood recorded the final two outs of the eighth inning to record his first career win in his collegiate career. – Toth led the Blue Hose at the plate during the three games in the tournament with a .538 average as he totaled two doubles, two home runs, and nine runs were driven in. Rasberry hit .500 with two home runs and a team-high 10 RBIs. – As a team, PC hit .302 with 10 extra-base hits for the tournament.- Following Saturday’s victory, PC had five players honored on the All-Tournament Team. Toth, Rasberry was joined by Kyle Merkle, Jake Wyandt, and Charlie McDaniel. Rasberry was also named the MVP of the 2021 Ingles Big South Baseball Championship. HOW IT HAPPENED – Campbell got out to the early 1-0 lead in the first with a solo home run.- PC got on the board in the third with a bunt single off the bat of Decker before a two-run single from Toth gave Presbyterian the 3-1 lead.- The Fighting Camels evened the game at three after three frames.- Campbell jumped back out in front in the fourth with an RBI single to push the lead out to 4-3.- Campbell pushed across a run in the seventh to extend the lead to 5-3. – In the eighth, PC responded with a solo home run from Toth before an RBI double Merkle pushed the game to a tie score of five. – In the ninth, Presbyterian got the bases loaded before bases loaded walk from Toth broke the tie. – PC added insurance runs from Rasberry with his two-run single down the left-field line that gave Toth plenty of support to go shutdown Campbell 1-2-3 and win the title. UP NEXT- Presbyterian College will now wait to find out its fate in the NCAA Tournament. The selection show will be on Monday, May 31, 2021, at noon on ESPN2.