By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
May 30, 2009
CLEMSON, S.C. – On a hazy May afternoon in Clemson, Michael Alcorn had the game of his career. Talk about saving the best for last.
No, the statistics wouldn't be anything to write home about, but the grit and determination shown in that contest is just one of many stories that has come to define Tennessee Tech baseball over the years.
Alcorn and his Golden Eagle teammates had gone through so much over the course of the year and weren't even expected to be at this point, fighting for their lives in an NCAA regional. But as he took the hill, pitching a complete-game 6-2 victory over Alabama, it wasn't a moment – it was THE moment.
To preface the game, the road to that point wasn't an easy one for the Golden Eagles.
As the 2009 season opened for the Tech baseball team, things were going well for the Golden Eagles. Tech won eight of its first 10 games, had three games with 12 or more runs and had a strong pitching rotation with Adam Liberatore, Lee Dobbs and Alcorn.
But things dissolved quickly. Liberatore went through a scoreless 17-inning stretch, striking out 21, but ended up pulling himself from an early-season game with pain in his elbow – a diagnosis later on that required Tommy John surgery.
This was already after Dobbs had a shoulder injury, which ended up sidelining him for a month before a short comeback attempt failed and saw his season come to an end.
So of a promising pitching rotation, all the Golden Eagles had of their projected group by the middle of March was Alcorn, a local product out of Cookeville High School. Missing the 2007 campaign for a back injury, the senior still had solid numbers, including a career 4.51 earned run average as the year began.
With two of their top three preseason pitchers sidelined, Tech saw the tally grow in the loss column, going from 8-2 to losing 10 of its next 15 and a 1-7 start in the Ohio Valley Conference. But the Golden Eagles also saw pitchers coming out of unexpected places and some hands putting up great numbers.
Lee Henry had a 4-1 stretch In conference play and finished with a 2.63 ERA in league competition. Ryan Dennick moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation and went 3-0 in four starts, including a one-hitter against later College World Series participant Southern Miss with teams hitting .189 against him.
From their usual spots, Ben Burgess (right field), Chad Hayes (second base), Chad Oberacker (center field) and A.J. Kirby-Jones (first base) also saw time on the hill and put together quality innings.
And after starting 1-7 in league play, Tech wrapped up the OVC run with a 9-4-1 record to finish 10-11-1 in the conference. In the OVC tournament in Paduch, the Golden Eagles put together a convincing 9-5 win over Southeast Missouri, who swept Tech in the regular season, then toppled Murray State 7-2, after going 0-2-1 against the Thoroughbreds.
That set up a battle against Jacksonville State. Picked the preseason favorites, the Gamecocks were swept by the Golden Eagles in the last week of the regular season. It was no different in the OVC Tournament as Tech won a 13-12 slugfest, winning on a walkoff in the 10th on a Casanova Donaldson hit to drive in Oberacker.
Tech came from behind in the title game, tying the game at three runs each in the fifth, then a Kirby-Jones RBI-single to left sent Alex Henry home for the game-winning run and the automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. Tech was selected to the Clemson regional, led the home team 4-3 until the host Tigers won 5-4 on a walkoff double from Jeff Schaus.
So here were the Golden Eagles, staring down elimination in the NCAA regional and their foe was the Crimson Tide from Alabama, entering the game with a 37-20 record and coming off a 10-6 loss to Oklahoma State to open the tournament.
So enter Alcorn – a 2-3 record, a 5.23 earned run average in just his 10th appearance on the year. His first inning went simple enough: a grounder to second, a liner back to the mound, a walk and a 2-4 pickoff as the runner tried to steal, so no damage done.
The Golden Eagles picked up a hit in the home half of the first, but nothing doing there either.
Alabama made things a little rocky for Alcorn in the second as the Crimson Tide tallied three consecutive hits to open up the frame as Clay Jones drove in Kent Matthes for the first run of the game. With the bases loaded and no one out, Alcorn settled down. Quickly, a strikeout and a 4-3 double play ended the threat.
It wasn't long before the Golden Eagles were on top. Evan Webb led off with a single up the middle, then Cory Wright had a one-out double down the left field line. Chad Hayes brought them both home with a single up the middle, 2-1 Tech.
For the next four innings, Alabama's bats were mostly silent. No hits in the third, a single to lead off the fourth, nothing in the fifth or sixth. The Tech defense and Alcorn's effort outfoxed them at every turn. In the meantime, the Golden Eagles added a third run in the fifth as Heath Cheverton scored on Kirby-Jones' sac fly to right.
Alabama added its second and final run in the seventh with Vin DiFazio driving in Ross Wilson with a single to left. Del Howell's two-out single to second could have made things interesting, but the throw from Hayes at second to Wright behind the plate was in time, tagging Brandon May out for the third out of the inning.
Energized from the defensive effort, Tech used the momentum to pull together three runs on four hits and an error. Henry, who reached on a leadoff double, scored on a throwing error off of an Oberacker bunt, then Kirby-Jones received a free pass and Burgess had an infield single to short. Webb drove in Oberacker with a single to left, then Wright pushed Kirby-Jones home on a single to right center.
The final two Alabama innings saw a walk and a hit in the eighth, a hit batter and a hit in the ninth.
Alcorn finished his day going all nine innings, allowing two runs on nine hits, walking four and striking out six. He forced 10 fly outs and six ground outs.
Offensively, Oberacker was 3-for-4 to pace the Golden Eagles (31-23-1), while Webb, Wright and Hayes were each 2-for-4.
Photo | Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
