SANFORD, Fla. - For the first time in program history, the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats are Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Regular Season Champions after a thrilling 10-8 win in the regular season finale, Saturday afternoon at Sanford Memorial Stadium.
With the win, the Wildcats clinch the No. 1 overall seed ahead of the conference tournament at Rickwood Field in Birmgham, Ala. They will face No. 8 seed Texas Southern in the opening round on Wednesday, May 21 at 10 a.m. EST.
Bethune-Cookman (33-21, 24-5 SWAC) opened the scoring with a solo shot in the bottom fo the second from
Armani Newton, his ninth of the year.
Texas Southern (22-30, 15-15 SWAC) erupted for a five-spot in the third, taking advantage of three Wildcat walks and four base hits to make it a 5-1 game, chasing B-CU starter
Pablo Torres.
Fortunately for B-CU, the bats answered with four runs of their own in the bottom of the third, as the first four Wildcats to head to the plate reached base with a hit.
Darryl Lee and
Andrey Martinez collected the first RBI of the frame with a pair of doubles.
Jesus Vanegas tied things up with an RBI single to left to score Martinez and make it a 5-5 game.
The fourth was the final clean inning of the game as Texas Southern retook the lead in the fifth with two outs. A two-out walk turned into danger after two straight wild pitches and an RBI single broke the tie ast 6-5.
That lead did not last long as the Wildcats jumped in front again in the bottom of the fifth after a two-out RBI single from
Irvin Escobar that scored
Jorge Rodriguez - who reached to start the inning on an error - and
Jeter Polledo.
The Cats made it 8-6 an inning later as Martinez brought home
Daniel Figueroa with a sacrifice fly.
The Tigers did not go away, tying things again in the seventh off the B-CU pen with a walk and a pair of doubles.
Jean Carlos Zambrano entered the game out of the pen to stop any further damage.
B-CU scored for the third straight inning with another solo shot, this time for Vanegas to break the stalemate again at 9-8. B-CU made it four straight innings with a run after another Martinez RBI single to score Figueroa and make it 10-8.
Zambrano shut the door in the ninth, earning the win - his sixth of the year.
- Daniel Figueroa was a perfect 3-3 on the day with three runs scored and a steal.
- Andrey Martinez finished the day 2-4 with a run scored and three RBI.
- Darryl Lee, Jesus Vanegas, and Irvin Escobar also enjoyed multi-RBI games.
- The Wildcats finish the season with more multi-homer games (25) as a team than games without a homer (15). The Cats have homered at least once in 27 of their last 30 games.
- Andrey Martinez is one homer shy (19) of tying the all-time program record in single-season homers.
- Vanegas's homer is his 16th of the year.
- B-CU finishes the regular season with 80 team homers, the best for the program since B-CU hit 90 as a team in 2010.
- The Regualr Season Championship is the first for the program since the Cats won the MEAC in 2017. They finished that season 36-26 and 15-8 in conference play. 30 of those wins came in the regular season.
The Wildcats title hopes begin against No. 8 seed Texas Southern in the opening round of the 2025 SWAC tournament on Wednesday, May 21 at 10 a.m. EST.
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--#HailWildcats--
