BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- Top-seeded Campbellsville built an 8-2 lead in the first three innings and despite a late rally, the fourth-seeded University of Pikeville baseball team never recovered in a 10-7 loss on Friday in a Mid-South Conference Tournament elimination game.

The Bears close the season with a 27-24 record, winning the most games since tallying 28 in 2001. Campbellsville (33-18) moves on to the championship game where it will meet No. 2-seed Cumberlands Sunday night.

The winner of the MSC Tournament receives the league's automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship, UPIKE is not expected to receive an at-large bid which goes by the national rankings.

Jorge Perez and Travis Haen paced the Bears with two hits each including the game's only home run by Perez in the top of the ninth inning. Anthony Roberts, who went 1 for 3, had the only other extra-base hit with a double.

Campbellsville got a 3-for-4 showing from David Montoya, including a double to drive in a pair of runs and score two himself. Matthew Valdez, Carlos Garmendia and Jose Castro all tallied two hits each for the Tigers as they outhit the Bears 14-11 overall.

Reliever Kirby Broadbent (3-0) got the win on the mound after inheriting a 2-2 tie game and going on to allow two runs on three hits in the next three innings. D.J. Wilson pitched the final 3 1/3 frames to grab the save, scattering four hits for two runs along the way.

A.J. Carkner (1-7) started the game and received the loss after scattering six hits for four runs with a strikeout in just 1 2/3 innings. Peyton Dove had the longest outing for the Bears, throwing the third through sixth innings, allowing UPIEK to get within three at 8-5 along the way.

A single and double with two outs got the Tigers on the board first with two runs in the first inning, but the lead didn't last long as tied it up with two runs on four hits in the top of the second. Haen's single to right field to score Perez was the tying hit.

But then Campbellsville answered the two runs in the bottom of the inning before adding four more in the third to take an 8-2 lead. The first three runs scored on two singles and a double with the fourth coming home on a sacrifice fly.

Dove kept the Tigers quiet over the next three innings as the Bears scored in three straight frames to make it an 8-6 game in the seventh when Matt Peterson's single to center scored Roberts. It wasn't until the bottom of the seventh that Campbellsville got back on the board, forcing UPIKE to go to the pen for Max Hall.

After the Tigers added one more run in the eighth it was 10-6, but Perez gave the Bears some hope with a leadoff home run in the ninth. After a pair of outs, Haen kept the inning alive with a single, but he was stranded there on a groundout to third to end the game.  

-UPIKE-