Championship Coverage

Derek Wiley hit his 16th home run of the season, tying the Belmont single-season record.
Image courtesy of ASunPhotos.com

DeLAND, Fla. - For the second consecutive year, Belmont advanced to Championship Saturday, eliminating Campbell 6-3 at the 2008 Atlantic Sun Baseball Championship Presented by Progress Energy from Stetson's Melching Field at Conrad Park.

Campbell (21-37) grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second inning starting with the first four hitters reaching resulting in a run scored by Mike Causey and the bases loaded with no out. Belmont starter Josh Moffitt limited the damage, inducing a double play of the bat of John Watlington that brought in the second run but Graham Fronk grounded out ending the threat.

Belmont (25-32) took the lead with a two-out rally in the bottom of the third that started with Packy Elkins reaching on a fielding error. Brandon McCall continued the threat singling through the left side as Elkins advanced to third, setting the stage for First-Team All-Atlantic Sun outfielder Carlo Testa. Testa, who came to the dish hitting .500 against Camel pitching, hit a laser into right center scoring McCall and Elkins while reaching third with his conference-leading eighth triple of 2008. Four pitches later, Derek Wiley provided the back-breaking blow, homering to left field to give Belmont its first lead of the night, 4-2.

"Two-out hits and two-out runs win games," Wiley said. "We're looking for a little revenge from last year. We had it won and didn’t think we could get beat twice, but we did. We're going to try to take it home this year."

Brandon Scott, he of two home runs against Mercer on Thursday just about hit his third of the A-Sun Championship but Belmont left fielder Derek Hamblen skied the fence and pulled the ball back into play for the first out of the inning.

The Bruins added single runs in fifth and seventh innings, increasing the lead to four. In the fifth, Hamblen led off with a walk, advanced to second on a sacrifice and scored on a single by McCall. Two innings later Hamblen started another rally with a double and scored on a single by Elkins.

After the rocky second inning Moffitt limited the Camels to one run over his final 5.1 innings of work to improve to 3-7. His outing fell one out short of the longest start at the A-Sun Championship. Justin Lily pitched 7.2 innings against Mercer on Friday.

"I had to calm down," Moffitt said. "I was getting a little pumped up because this had the potential to be our last game. I decided to let my defense take over instead of trying to strike guys out. We have a lot of guys that are hungry for it and I know I am. What happened to us last year is we got a little complacent because we were that team that had to be beat twice and we got beat twice. But our backs are against the wall this time and we have nothing to lose, so we're going to come out fighting, no doubt in my mind."

The Bruins advance to Championship Saturday where they will face Gardner-Webb at 3:00pm. This game as well as all A-Sun Championship games can be seen on ASun.TV.

Notes: Team scoring first are only 4-4 in the A-Sun Championship...Derek Wiley's home run was the 40th of his career and 16th this season tying the Bruins' single-season record set by Brian Bogaard in 1999...Wiley drove in two runs increasing his career total to 160 breaking a tie with Randy Ingram for third on the Bruins' all-time list; Wiley trails Jerry Wheeler by two to tie for second...Carlo Testa and Wiley have driven in 12 of Bruins' 20 runs at the 2008 A-Sun Championship...Third seeds improved to 7-0 all-time against sixth seeds...Campbell stole two bases increasing its total to 106 and breaking the school's single-season record (104 in 2001)...Bruins win for just the eighth time in 30 games in which their opponent scores first...Campbell finishes the 2008 season with 10 more wins than 2007.

The Atlantic Sun Conference is a 12-member league committed to Building Winners for Life, with a focus on academic and athletic integrity and a balance between the two for the student-athlete, and maintaining a high level of sportsmanship. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun encompasses six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun consists of some of the most dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Gardner-Webb University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.