PORTSMOUTH, Ohio -- For the second time this season, UPIKE baseball leaned on its big Canadian righty, and for the second time, he came through with a much-needed win as Pikeville defeated Shawnee State 5-1 on Sunday's regular season finale.
With the win, UPIKE finishes fifth in the conference and will head to Bowling Green for the Mid-South Conference Tournament next weekend.
Cappe proved his iron man status again, throwing over 130 pitches for the second time this year, while giving up just the one run. He surrendered nine hits with his two strikeouts.
UPIKE gave Cappe a lead before he even touched the mound after scoring a run in the first. Tyler Menrath started a great day at the plate for him with a walk, and Luke Lubiniecki followed with a double to put runners at second and third with one out. Jay Vincent followed with a sacrifice fly to bring home Menrath.
Shawnee State tied the game up in similar fashion in the second with a double and a single back-to-back to score its only run of the game.
From that point on, Cappe wasn't perfect but made all the pitches he needed to while his defense made some amazing plays backing him up.
It appeared Shawnee State would take the lead in the third after a deep fly ball was hit to left center field with two runners in scoring position, but Menrath was able to run it down and make catch at the base of the wall to end the inning.
That momentum carried into the UPIKE bats in the fourth inning after a walk and single by Pastor Sanchez put two runners on with one out. Kase Mattingly then followed through with an RBI triple, but a great throw cut down Sanchez on his way home so the lead was just 2-1 in favor of Pikeville.
Jacob Alvarado made another potential run-saving diving catch in center to end the sixth inning and once again that swung momentum in favor of Pikeville.
Alvarado then had his second of three hits in the game before Menrath hit a home run against the wind to deep center field to make it 4-1 for UPIKE in the seventh.
With the bigger lead, Pikeville felt comfortable allowing Cappe to continue working and responded with a 1-2-3 seventh inning.
It appeared that the Waterford, Ontario native was running out of gas in the eighth inning after loading the bases with just one out. But, with one good pitch he was able to force the clutch 6-4-3 double play and get out of the jam.
Alvarado scored his second run of the game as an insurance run in the ninth on a RBI groundout from Luke Lubiniecki to give the Bears a four-run lead.
Already sitting at 118 pitches, Cappe came back out to work the ninth and the bases were loaded after an error on a potential game-ending double play. But Mattingly came through by snagging a hard liner out of the air on the next batter, and doubled the runner off second to clinch UPIKE's trip to the conference championship.
UP NEXT
Pikeville clinches the No. 5 seed with the win and will face No. 4 Cumberland (Tenn.) in the first round of the MSC Tournament at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday at Bowling Green Ballpark in Bowling Green, Ky.
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