Two Big Innings Send Baseball to Semifinal Round
LEWISTON, Idaho-David Castillo came up big in his first start at the Avista NAIA World Series.
The catcher finished 3-for-4 to help the Fire stave off elimination with a 6-4 comeback win over Indiana Wesleyan on Tuesday, which makes top-seeded Southeastern one of the last four teams remaining in the tournament.
Southeastern (57-5) had just three hits heading to the sixth inning, trailing 3-0 after the Wildcats (41-20-1) came up with an RIB single and a two-run single in the top of the fifth. That’s when Castillo delivered his first big play of the day with a solo homer to right center to get the Fire on the board.
“We just needed to focus on what we needed to do to help the team,” said Castillo. “After my home run everyone started doing the same thing.”
Patience set in as Nicholas Block reached on a dropped fly ball and Josh Pigozzo reached on a walk to set up Adonys Herrera’s two-out, two-run single through the left side of the infield to tie the game.
The Wildcats responded with a solo homer in the top of the seventh inning to regain the lead, but the Fire refused to crumble. Chayce Bryant, who missed Monday’s game, picked up his second home run of the tournament and 21st of the season to lead off the bottom of the inning to knot things up.
With runners at first and second, Castillo came up with another big play bunting for a hit to load the bases.
“David was our spark today,” said coach Erik Dahl. “He was exactly what we needed when we needed him and got everyone fired up and raised morale.”
A sacrifice fly by Pigozzo followed by a dropped infield pop up gave the Fire a two-run lead.
“We flipped the switch mentally we needed to get the barrel out and attack a fastball which was something we struggled with the first five innings and finally had some guys that got the hands out a little bit and it got contagious.”
Reece Wissinger came on in the eighth to strike out the side, then battled out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth for his sixth save of the season.
Southeastern will be assigned an opponent by the tournament committee after completion of the winner’s bracket tonight.