Former area athletes see college seasons end
The following are updates on local athletes at the collegiate level.
Michael Noteware (Glendale Community College, 2011) junior, Lewis-Clark State baseball: Noteware’s Warriors had their season ended in heartbreaking fashion on Monday when top-seeded Louisiana State University Shreveport’s Devin Greco hit a walk-off grand slam for a 7-3 win over sixth-seeded Lewis-Clark in a loser’s bracket elimination game of the NAIA World Series.
Noteware’s last outing of the season, one in which he was named All-NAIA West Pitcher of the Year, came on Friday when he started the Warriors’ series opener against Oklahoma City.
The former GCC right-hander pitched a complete game, allowing four earned runs on nine hits, but ended up with a loss in the 7-2 defeat.
Noteware, who struck out nine batters and walked just one, was partially undone by two errors in the third inning, which set up Miguel Beltran’s three-run home run that put the Stars up, 4-1.
The loss set up a scenario in which the Warriors would have to win their next six games to win the title. Lewis-Clark responded with a 5-1 win over College of Idaho on Saturday in its first elimination game before concluding its season at 42-14 two days later.
Noteware finished up with a 9-3 record and a 2.23 earned-run average with 73 strikeouts and 12 walks.
Sean Elliott (Crescenta Valley, 2009) junior, University of Indianapolis baseball: The Greyhounds’ stay in the 2012 NCAA Division II Championship tournament was a short one, two games to be exact.
UIndy, the No. 11 seed, notched just three hits against top-seeded St. Mary’s and Division II Pitcher of the Year Carl O’Neal on Tuesday in a season-ending 13-2 loss two days after opening the playoffs with a 2-1 loss to Catawba. O’Neal held UIndy without a hit until the sixth inning.
Elliott, a right-handed reliever, didn’t pitch in either game and finished the year with a 1-0 record and 3.29 ERA over 13 2/3 innings.
UIndy finished 46-16 and won its first Division II Midwest Regional championship.
Baillie Kirker (Crescenta Valley High, 2009) junior, University of Arizona softball: Kirker did not appear in either of the Wildcats’ final two games of the season as they were swept out of the Super Regional by Oklahoma with a 6-0 loss on Friday followed by a 7-1 defeat on Saturday.
It was the first time in her Arizona career that Kirker did not play a single inning in the playoffs, as she was a scratch throughout the Tucson Regional round, as well. The Wildcats’ second straight postseason elimination at the hands of the Sooners also marked the first time since 1986 that Arizona (38-19) won fewer than 40 games.
Kirker’s role with the team shrunk dramatically during her junior season, in which she started just four of the 20 games she appeared in and batted . 211 with one home run and nine runs batted in.