Briarcliffe wins three games for World Series title

OLD ORCHARD BEACH — 12 hours.

That’s how long it took the Briarcliffe College baseball team to earn, in one day, the USCAA Small College World Series title on Wednesday at The Ballpark.

It was the second consecutive national championship for the Bulldogs.

Rolling in at 9 a.m., the Bulldogs rolled out of the old dirt parking lot at 9 p.m.. exhausted, with a long bus ride through the night ahead of the team on its way back to New York.

“We’ve been on a lot of adrenaline,” Bulldogs pitcher Thomas Butler said. “We knew we had to win every single one, and it’s not even me. We’ve got 20 other guys that got this done. It was a great, great job.”

But that ride became easier after the Bulldogs beat Southern Virginia University 6-2 in the championship contest in front of a small but loyal group of fans as mist and fog engulfed The Ballpark through the entire day.

To reach the championship, the Bulldogs beat Penn State-Greater Allegheny 10-0 in five innings earlier Wednesday morning, receiving a small break before taking on Southern Virginia, beating the Knights in a 11-9 slugfest, forcing a second and final game to decide the title.

“These kids have so much heart and soul,” Briarcliffe head coach Ed Jusino said. “We’re running on adrenaline now. We’re on fumes. You can’t measure heart, and that’s what you saw today.”

Briarcliffe ultimately saved its best performance for last. Butler pitched a complete game, allowing two runs on four hits for the Bulldogs. Between the first and ninth innings, Butler retired 24 consecutive batters.

For his effort, Butler was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

“It’s unreal,” Butler said. “It’s my first national championship in anything. I’m lost for words.”

More improbable was Butler striking out only two batters as the Bulldogs defense fought off the fog to make plays.

“Normally, I’m a strikeout guy, but I was pitching to contact today,” Butler said. “I was trying to hit spots, and was just getting outs. A couple of the guys just made great plays. It’s unbelievable. Everyone did a great job. They did a phenomenal job.”

At one point, it was almost impossible to see outfielders from the bleachers, making it more difficult to catch fly balls in the outfield.

“They were working with each other,” Jusino said. “They had come in, and I told them that if they were losing balls, to let me know. They really worked at it, communicating with each other and playing team baseball.”

Butler came close to not even pitching in the contest. In the first game against Southern Virginia, Butler injured himself on a slide into third base.

“I slipped and hit my face on the floor,” Butler said. “It got an initial dizziness, but it just went away.”

Kevin Licul led the Bulldogs going 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI.

Along with a lack of offensive production defensive lapses plagued the Knights as they made four errors in the title game.

Josh Linn led the Knights on offense by collecting two of its four hits in the game.

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