LCU baseball takes Division II regional with six homers in win over UTPB

The Lubbock Christian University baseball team delivered Nathan Blackwood his 800th career coaching victory on Saturday.

On Sunday, the Chaparrals gave him something even better.

Fourth-ranked LCU won the South Central Region 1 bracket of the Division II NCAA tournament, hitting six home runs at Hays Field in a 20-13 victory over the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

Hayden Blair, Jacob Gutierrez, Jarred Gibson and Shea Bowen drove in three runs apiece for LCU (44-14), which won its 13th game in a row and advanced to the super-regional round for the first time in the program's short NCAA history.

The Chaps will play a best-of-three super regional next weekend against Lone Star Conference rival Angelo State (39-18), which won the South Central Region 2 bracket in Grand Junction, Colorado as the No. 6 seed. The series opener will be at 6 p.m. Friday at Hays Field with the second and if-necessary third games at 2 p.m. Saturday.

The LCU-Angelo State winner advances to the double-elimination championship bracket June 1-8 at the USA Baseball national training complex in Cary, North Carolina.

The two teams split their four-game conference series two months ago in San Angelo and haven't met since.

On a hot, windy afternoon at Hays Field, LCU subdued UTPB with six home runs, one each from Bowen, Ryan Ball, Nate Van Maanen, Carson Ogilvie, Gutierrez and Gibson.

UTPB went ahead 11-10 on an Austin Hall RBI single in the top of the seventh inning, and LCU responded with three runs in the bottom of the seventh and seven in the eighth. The first three Chaps batters in the seventh singled, Van Maanen's being a game-tying hit.

After a sacrifice, Gibson scored on a wild pitch and Bowen delivered a run-scoring single.

The Chaps opened it up to 20-11 in the eighth with a leadoff homer from Gutierrez, a three-run homer by Gibson and a three-run double from Blair.

LCU 8-hole hitter Frayner Chavez finished 4 for 4 with two runs batted in and three scored. Gutierrez, Ball and Bowen had three hits apiece of the Chaps' 19, and Gibson and Van Maanen each had two hits.

Coleson Abel (4-0), the last of three LCU pitchers, got the win. He went 3 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: LCU baseball wins Division II regional with six homers in win over UTPB