Edward Waters (28-27, NAIA Division bracket winner) came all the way back from an opening loss to top Kentucky State (25-24 overall, NCAA Division II bracket champion) Saturday for the championship of the inaugural Tyson Foods Black College Baseball World Series.
Both teams roared back from the lower bracket with one loss each to make the finals, and both were 3-1 entering championship. Last year’s non-sponsored BCBWS champ was Division II Bluefield State, which was eliminated after two contests last Thursday.
Edward Waters struck first on a RBI double by catcher Anthony Roman in the top of the second inning to take a 1-0 advantage and scored again in the same frame on a RBI triple by tournament MVP John Nobles to break ahead 2-0.
Starting pitcher Austin James (2-1) of EWU opened the tussle with two scoreless innings to back the early lead before K-State broke the ice in the third to make the score 2-1 on a sacrifice fly. Daiton Pass extended the Tigers lead in the fifth inning with an RBI single to raise it to 3-1 in EWU’s favor. SS Aram Kumar then squeezed in a run with an infield bunt in the bottom of the sixth for the Thorobreds to cut the final margin to 3-2.
KSU ‘s Brady Bibbs (3-2) was tagged with the loss before yielding to three relief pitchers. K-State also had the slight disadvantage of playing 30 innings in three games over the last two days after going 12 frames in a 5-4 elimination win over No. 1 tourney seed Albany State Friday morning.
Tyson president/CEO John Tyson was on hand to speak to both teams and to present the championship hardware. Arkansas men’s basketball head coach Eric Musselman also accompanied the Tyson Foods’ contingent and gave out Pitching and Tournament MVP Awards.
Keilin Washington of EWU took home Most Outstanding Player honors while pitching MVP laurels went to Dashawn Hureskin of Kentucky State.
Editor’s Note… story submitted by guest contributor “Bo” Carter, Executive Director of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.