NAIA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP OPENING ROUND Game 4: St. Francis (IL) 7, Mayville State (N. Dak.) 3

JOLIET, Ill. --- University of St. Francis staved off elimination in the 2010 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round by opening up a 4-0 lead after the first two and scoring a pair of insurance runs late in a 7-3 victory over Mayville State University (N. Dak.) Wednesday morning at Silver Cross Field.

St. Francis centerfielder David Heasley and third baseman Andy Zurales proved hard to stop with the bat as Heasley drove in runs in three separate innings and Zurales went 4-for-5 with two runs scored and one RBI. Included in Zurales’ hit was one and a .

Heasley drove Zurales in with the second of the first on a double after catcher Pat Grady plated the first run on a .

St. Francis (35-15) doubled its run total in the second inning scoring on a wild and Zurales’ double.

Mayville State got one of those runs back in the third inning when it opened the frame with back-to- back singles and scored on an Alex Berry groundout.

Heasley, however, provided his second run-scoring double in the seventh to rebuild the Saints’ lead back up to four, 5-1.

The Comets made their biggest noise in the eighth inning when they put the tying run on first base with two outs courtesy of run-scoring singles by catcher Spencer Braun (2-for-3) and third baseman Dan Silva to make it a 5-3 game. That is when St. Francis head coach Gordie Gillespie summoned reliever Corey Schultz of the to take over for starter Joe Koehler.

Koehler (5-4) had yielded just five hits through the first seven innings before tiring in the eighth when he gave up three hits and a walk.

Schultz retired the final batter in the eighth and three straight after a walk to open the ninth to record his fifth of the season.

Designated hitter Brent Walters and first baseman Joe Ruge also collected a pair of hits for the Saints with Ruge;’s second driving in a run in USF’s third two-run inning of the game in the ninth.

Derek Howerton went 2-for-4 as Mayville’s .

The win sets up another elimination game for the Saints in a matchup with Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference foe Robert Morris University at 7 p.m. Wednesday night.

Mayville State finished its season at 29-22.

JOLIET, Ill. --- Campbellsville University (Ky.) senior righthander Eric Mattos silenced the University of St. Francis bats in the second game of the 2010 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round en route to a 3-0 victory at Silver Cross Field Thursday afternoon.

Mattos, who went the distance for the seventh time in 12 starts, allowed just one hit through the first seven innings before settling for a four-hit shutout. It was his second shutout of the season.

“The young man from Campbellsville pitched one heck of a game,” said USF head coach Gordie Gillespie, whose team lost back-to-back games for the first time since April 5-6. “He kept us out of sync most of the afternoon and we were never able to get anything going.”

Campbellsville (41-20) took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when four of the first five Tigers to bat laced singles including run-producers by designated hitter Zac Townsend and centerfielder Jameel Ziadeh. The lead held at that mark until the eighth inning when catcher Richie Rowland connected on his 10th of the season. It was the third hit of the game for Rowland in four at bats.

Neither team mounted any other serious scoring threats the rest of the afternoon with no Saint runner getting beyond second base. That only happened twice, once in the seventh inning and the other time in the ninth. Both times, however, came with two outs.

First baseman Joe Ruge accounted for half of USF’s offense producing a pair of singles.

Third baseman Craig Edwards also had a pair of hits for Campbellsville, which came into the contest as the No. 2 seed and ranked 21st in the nation.

Sophomore Matt Huck suffered the loss for the Saints. It was his first loss of the season opposite six wins.

With the victory, Campbellsville advanced to the winner’s bracket where the Tigers will meet top- seeded Cumberland (Tenn.) at 3 p.m. today

St. Francis (34-15) faces Mayville State University (N. Dak.) in an elimination game Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. with that winner going up against Robert Morris University Wednesday night at 7 p.m.

In Tuesday’s other games, No. 3 seed Robert Morris (40-18) rallied for four runs over the final three innings to upend No. 5 seed Mayville State, 5-2, in the first game of the day. The Eagles, however, could not get by No. 1 seed Cumberland (Tenn.) (51-9) in the first-day finale losing 8-1.

The double-elimination tournament runs through Friday at Silver Cross Field.