KINGSPORT, Tenn. (May 15, 2019) – After falling to No. 2 Tennessee Wesleyan University 19-7 during day three of the NAIA Opening Round – Kingsport Bracket, the No. 19 Webber International University baseball team will have one more chance to punch its first ticket to the NAIA World Series with another game against the Bulldogs on Thursday, May 16.

After Webber (38-21) and Tennessee Wesleyan (51-9) combined for only one run and 11 hits during their first meeting on Tuesday, May 14, a game in which the Warriors were victorious by a score of 1-0, the Bulldogs came out swinging against starter John Shutrump (3-4) and the rest of the Warriors' pitching staff on Wednesday.

TWU jumped out to an early 7-0 lead after two and a half innings and put up 13 total runs on 16 hits through the first four innings. In all, the Bulldogs finished with 20 hits and scored a run in all but one inning.

The 19 runs allowed was the most given up by the Warriors all season long after allowing the opposition to put up 14 runs against them twice during the regular season. It was also the most runs given up by Webber in a game during its current three-year run in the opening round.

The Webber offense, meanwhile, after being held to only four hits during the win on Tuesday, took until the bottom of the third inning to wake up as a leadoff walk by Cristian Rivera followed by a single through the hole at shortstop by Carlos Pino helped lead to a three-run frame for the Warriors to cut into the TWU lead and make it 7-3 at the time.

In that third inning for the Warriors, Norberto Navarro singled past the second baseman to score Rivera; and then after a double steal by Garrett Martin and Navarro to put runners on second and third with one out, Willie Carter brought them both in with a single past second base of his own.

Webber added more runs over the next two innings, but the 10-run deficit was simply going to be too much to overcome. The Warriors scored a run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 13-4 after Quirino Esquivel led off with a single to center field and scored from second base two batters later on a single to right field by Rivera; and then Webber made it 13-6 in the bottom of the fifth with a very long two-run home run to left field by Marcus Begg to also score Navarro, who led off the frame with a walk. It was the career-high 17th home run of the year for Begg as he also added to his Warriors' single-season record number of RBI's with 64 now.

Begg finished 2-for-5 for his second straight two-hit game, and Esquivel finished 2-for-4 to record his third consecutive two-hit performance to open up the opening round. Esquivel brought in Webber's final RBI of the game, making it 16-7 at the time in the bottom of the seventh to score Carter, who led off the frame with a single up the middle and was followed by Begg's single to third base to put two runners on with no outs.

"We didn't make TWU work too hard for that 'W'," said Brad Niethammer. "We have another shot tomorrow to play like we are capable of."

Despite the outcome and despite falling behind by 10 runs three different times in the game, it was the best offensive performance of the opening round so far for Webber. However, Tennessee Wesleyan, after defeating No. 4-seeded Madonna University (Mich.) 15-9 earlier on Wednesday to make the championship game against Webber, finished with a combined 34 runs and 35 hits in total on the day.

With both Webber and TWU now with one loss in the bracket, the deciding winner-take-all final game will come tomorrow at 11 a.m. as the Warriors look to take advantage of making the championship game through the winners' bracket, forcing the Bulldogs to take down Webber in back-to-back games to make the World Series.