Conway, Ark. - Those who braved it through Hendrix's three-game set with Oglethorpe last Thursday and Friday are just now catching their breath after a nervy 48 hours that was capped off by a
Griffin Baird extra-inning walk-off in Game 3 to send the Warriors to the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) Championship Tournament.
This will mark the first time the Orange and Black have advanced to the final weekend of the conference playoffs since 2012.
The Warriors entered postseason play as the No. 4 seed after a 23-16 (12-9 SAA) finish to the regular season, and found themselves with their backs against the wall early after a 14-7 battering in Game 1 versus the Stormy Petrels.
Hendrix took Game 2 7-2 after a gem of a performance from right-handed freshman
Dylan Kalmus, who threw 6.0 scoreless innings in relief with 10 strikeouts while surrendering just 1 run.
The series was decided on Friday morning after a 10:00 AM first pitch, with Hendrix walking it off in the 10th inning after trailing 6-4 heading into the 9th.
SAA Championship Tournament
As the second-highest seed remaining, Hendrix will be paired with the 6th-seed Rhodes to begin the final weekend of play in Danville, Kentucky. The Lynx are coming off a 2-0 sweep over No. 3 seed Birmingham-Southern last weekend in Alabama.
On the other side of the bracket are the hosts and No. 1 seed, Centre College, and the 7th-seeded Sewanee Tigers.
Hendrix dropped their series with Rhodes in Memphis earlier this season. This is the first time these two teams have met in the postseason since 2019, when Rhodes upset top-seeded Hendrix 12-6 in Conway to eliminate the hosts and advance to the championship series.
Notes
- For those of you that played MLB Slugfest back in the day, do you remember when a hitter's bat would catch fire after you strung together a couple of hits? That is what Hogan Ralston and Owen Shaw are swinging right now. Shaw went 4-5 at the plate in Game 1 and 3-4 in Game 3, while Ralston went a combined 7-12 over the three-game series. The junior left-handed hitters have been a pair of tough outs in the middle part of the Hendrix lineup all season long.
- Hendrix opened up league play with a three-game series versus Sewanee in Tennessee with the Warriors cruising to a three-game sweep of the Tigers. Of the three other teams remaining, Sewanee is the only team that the Warriors won a series against. They played Centre in the final weekend of league play with the regular season championship on the line but suffered a series sweep to the Colonels in three close games.
- Jack Hodgins, Bryson Bales, David Blackburn, Dylan Kalmus, Aiden Leggett, Nathan Silva, Braxton Waller, and JD Nichols will be the arms that Hendrix rests its fortunes on heading into the final weekend.
- Kalmus has been a revelation since being bumped into the weekend starting rotation after beginning the year as a midweek starter. The freshman has struck out 40 batters compared to just 8 walks in 46.2 IP, surrendering 23 runs on 50 hits.
- Not to be outdone by Kalmus last weekend, Braxton Waller put together what might have been the most clutch pitching performance of the season for the Warriors to date. Waller entered in relief of Bales in Friday's elimination game and was absolute nails. The sophomore right-hander entered at the start of the 7th with the Warriors trailing Oglethorpe 5-2 and allowed 1 unearned run on 3 hits in 4.0 innings of relief work while striking out 2.
The Final Line
It has been 12 years since the Warriors last had a chance to play for the postseason conference crown. Their last postseason triumph was in 2009, when they won the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) tournament during
R.J. Thomas' first stint as the head man with Hendrix, but they have never won an SAA title.
Hendrix is 4-5 against the remaining competition, but is 12-6 when playing in Danville, Kentucky.
First pitch for Hendrix-Rhodes is 12:00 PM CT on Thursday afternoon. The Warriors will play their second game of the Championship Tournament on Friday against either Centre or Sewanee.
It's October baseball but in early May, so let's have some fun. #RollDrix
For more information on the 2024 SAA Championship Tournament in Danville, Ky., click
here.
