May 3, 2008- Lindenwood won the 2008 HAAC Baseball Championship on Saturday, winning the best of three series over 21st Avila in three games. The Lions won game one on Friday night by a 4-3 score. Game two was a wild back-and-forth game that Avila won in 11 innings by an 16-15 margin. The deciding game three went to the Lions by an 8-2 margin.

Lindenwood will host the NAIA Region V Tournament starting next Wednesday at the Lou Brock Sports Complex. Avila and William Jewell have also earned automatic berths into the regional field.

Game One
The Lions learned from an early inning mistake to make the play of the game in the eighth inning. In the second inning, with runners on first and third, Avila successful ran a double steal, with the runner on third scoring when the Lions threw down to second.

In the eighth inning, Avila attempted the same play with two outs and Lindenwood leading 4-3. This time, the Lions faked a throw to second but instead catcher A.J. Bancroft threw to shortstop Chris Getz. Getz quickly threw the ball back to Bancroft and the Lions caught the runner trying to return to third to get out of the inning.

Don Anderson then completed his complete game victory by pitching a 1-2-3 ninth, getting a strikeout and two foul outs for his ninth victory of the season.

Lindenwood had the lead late in the game thanks to a defensive breakdown by Avila in the fourth inning. The Eagles led 2-1 heading into that inning but they made four errors which led to three Lions runs. Chris Getz had the only hit in the inning with a double that scored Justin Lamar and put the Lions ahead 3-2. One batter later, Getz scored on a fielding error by Avila's third baseman.

Don Anderson finished with a line of allowing five hits, three runs, two earned runs, and two walks. He struck out four, had seven groundouts and eight flyouts. He held Avila's .400 hitters in check, as Jeff Woods and Brad Davidson combined to go 0-for-8.

Offensively, Getz finished the game with two hits, one run and one RBI. Sean Cunningham and Matt Pohlman also had two hits and Justin Lamar scored twice.

Avila was led by Adam Rodriguez who went two-for-three and scored twice. Nathan Albert took the loss, allowing nine hits and one earned run in seven innings.

Game Two
Game two of the HAAC Championship Series was a back-and-forth affair with Avila winning a dramatic 11-inning game by a 16-15 score.

Lindenwood grabbed control early, jumping out to a 9-1 lead after 2 ½ innings. The Eagles came back and tied it at 13 after six innings. After that, the game turned in a pitching dual, with neither team scoring until the 11th inning. In that inning, the Lions struck first with two runs in the top half of the inning. In Avila's at-bat, they put together two walks, two singles a hit batter and then won the game on a sacrifice fly.

The Lions were led by four hits by Sean Cunningham and three apiece by Mike Parson and Matt Pohlman. Cunningham scored four times and Parson had four RBIs. A.J. Bancroft drove in five runners, including a three-run homer.

Avila was led by Jeff Woods who had two hits, two runs, three RBIs and the game-winning sacrifice fly. Matt Mowatt had three hits, three runs and two RBIs, Brad Davidson had four RBIs, three coming on a homerun, and Drew Ambach had three hits, two RBIs and a run. The team's closer, Santos Villanueva, went six innings for the win, allowing just one earned run.

Game Three
In the deciding contest, the Lions received a spark from a third inning grand slam by Ryan Shockley and won the game by an 8-2 margin.

Shockley's homer gave Lindenwood a 4-0 lead, which the game remained until Avila scored twice in the sixth. That was all the Eagles would get however as the Lions added four insurance runs in the final three innings for the six-run victory.

Shockley finished with two hits and two runs to go along with his four RBIs. Matt Pohlman added two hits, two runs and a RBI and Sean Cunningham had a key two-run triple to give Lindenwood a 6-2 lead.

Anthony Clark and James Huff combined to allow just four hits in the game. Clark earned the win after going six innings and allowing four hits and the two runs. Huff got the save after not allowing a hit over the final three innings.

Avila's runs in the final game came from Jeremy Arbiso and Adam Rodriguez. Eric Menees and Kyle Mowatt were credited with RBIs.