Loyola Hangs on With a 9-3 Win in NCAA West I Baseball

Chris Smith could think of better ways to start a day.

Saturday morning, a few hours before his Loyola Marymount baseball team’s game against Eastern Kentucky in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. West I Regional, the person who handles Loyola’s travel arrangements approached Smith with a request.

“He wanted me to start thinking about arrangements to get out of here,” Smith said. “I told him, ‘Hey, this isn’t over yet. We’re going to go out there and try to stay alive one more day.’ ”

Loyola accomplished its goal with a 9-3 victory over Eastern Kentucky at Sancet Field that was highlighted by Brian Clancy’s pitching, the Lions’ flawless defensive play and a three-run homer in the eighth inning by shortstop Darrel Deak.

Loyola, which suffered a 5-2 opening-round loss to Oklahoma Friday night, plays the loser of Saturday night’s game between Cal State Long Beach and Oklahoma.

Loyola’s victory over Eastern Kentucky helped ease the memory of the Lions’ loss to Oklahoma, a game Loyola gave away by committing six errors, including three during the eighth inning when Oklahoma scored all of its runs.

Saturday’s victory also conjured memories of 1986, when Loyola lost its first game in regional play to UC Santa Barbara, then came back through the loser’s bracket to win the regional and advance to the College World Series.

“Anything can happen,” said Smith, who was a Loyola assistant in 1986 under former head coach Dave Snow, now at Cal State Long Beach. “It’s a long road through the losers bracket, not the way we would have liked to go, but this team has battled through adversity all year. We’re here and we have as good a chance as anyone.”

Eastern Kentucky entered its game against Loyola a little more than 12 hours after Friday’s 12-6 loss to Arizona. The Colonels jumped on Arizona ace Scott Erickson to forge a 5-1 lead, but were unable to hold off the top-seeded Wildcats in a game that ended at 11:30 p.m.

Saturday at noon, with the temperature nearing 100 degrees, the Colonels were back on the field to play Loyola.

“We got up on Arizona and we thought we had them beat,” said Eastern Kentucky shortstop Marc Siemer. “I thought we were emotionally spent a little bit today.”

Loyola was ahead, 4-2, when Clancy replaced left-hander Jon Willard with two on and no out in the fifth.

Clancy, a senior right-hander, had watched Eastern Kentucky Friday against Arizona and determined that the Colonels could be shut down by controlling the outside part of the plate.

Mixing his fastball and slider, Clancy limited Eastern Kentucky to just one run and four hits over the final five innings. He improve his record to 5-4.

“I didn’t have one of my better sliders today, but once I got anything on the outside part of the plate, they either didn’t swing or couldn’t hit it,” Clancy said. “They were looking to pull everything.”

Eastern Kentucky was also unsuccessful in its search for a way to control Deak, a sophomore from Scottsdale, Ariz., who finished with three hits and five runs batted in.

Deak produced Loyola’s first run during a three-run second inning when he followed consecutive singles by Greg Wall, Rick Allen and Brian Turang with a single to right field. Kevin Van DeBrake drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to center field and Tim Williams drove in another with a run-scoring ground out to first base.

Deak put Loyola ahead, 4-0, in the fourth when he singled in Allen, who had doubled to lead off the inning.

Loyola added two runs in the seventh on doubles by Van DeBrake and Joe Ciccarella and a single by Travis Tarchione, setting the stage for Deak’s crushing blow in the eighth.

Turang laid down a sacrifice bunt after Eastern Kentucky pitcher Brad Welker issued consecutive walks to Wall and Allen.

That brought up Deak, who bombed a Welker fastball out of the park over the 400-foot sign in center field for his fourth home run of the season.

Eastern Kentucky scored its final run in the ninth on a pinch-hit solo home run by Shawn Heggen.