The UAFS baseball team's quest for its first Heartland Conference Tournament championship ended on Saturday afternoon as the No. 3 seed Lions were eliminated with a 10-7 loss in 11 innings to the No. 4 seed St. Edward's Hilltoppers at The Depot at Cleburne Station in Cleburne, Texas.

The Lions (27-19), who on Friday avoided elimination with a 5-3 win against the No. 1 seed and No. 19-ranked Lubbock Christian Chaps, will now have to wait until Sunday night to see whether or not they receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II South Central Region.

UAFS was ranked No. 7 in the final South Central Region Poll of the regular season.

St. Edward's (27-26), which is the six-time defending tournament champion, will play No. 2 seed Rogers State on Saturday evening in the championship game. The Hilltoppers, who lost 6-5 in 11 innings to the Hillcats in Friday's winner's bracket final, will have to beat the Hillcats twice to win an unprecedented seventh consecutive title and the conference's automatic bid to the South Central Region Tournament.

It was the longest game of the season for the Lions in more ways than one. The game actually started at about 7:30 p.m. on Friday night, but with the game tied 6-6 with one out in the top of the ninth inning, the game went into a weather delay at approximately 10:15 p.m. The game was suspended at midnight with a scheduled restart time of noon on Saturday, but that time was delayed until 3:30 p.m.

Once play resumed, the game remained tied until the top of the 11^th inning when St. Edward's scored four runs to regain the lead.

Center fielder Ryan McPhail had a RBI double and designated hitter Blake Holub had a two-RBI double to chase Lions reliever Foster Pace, who relieved middle reliever Cameron Highfill in the sixth inning. Two batters later, Lions reliever Tyler Lindley gave up a RBI single to left fielder Zach Shepherd to give the Hilltoppers a four-run lead.

Hilltoppers reliever Brandon Pettinati, who took the mound in relief in the eighth inning, retired Lions first baseman Kyle Love on a long flyout to left-center field but gave up a solo home run to center fielder Travis Young. Pettinati, though, struck out second baseman Logan Easley and got designated hitter Trent Powell to line out to center field to end the game.

Pettinati (3-0) earned the win, allowing one run on one hit with three strikeouts over 3 1/3 innings. A trio of Hilltoppers pitchers gave up a combined 12 hits.

Young was 3 for 6 with two doubles, a home run and three RBIs, catcher Dylan Hurt was 2 for 5 with two RBIs, shortstop Brandan Warner was 1 for 5 with one RBI, right fielder Logan Allen was 2 for 5 with a double and Easley was 2 for 6.

Pace (4-3) suffered the loss, allowing four runs on five hits with one walk and four strikeouts over five innings. In all, four Lions pitchers combined to allow 16 hits.
Holub was 4 for 6 with a double and four RBIs, Shepherd was 3 for 5 with three RBIs, McPhail was 2 for 5 with a double and two RBIs, right fielder Dylan Mackin was 4 for 5 with a double and third baseman Ty Markee was 1 for 4 with a double.

The Hilltoppers, who lost their three-game series 2-1 to the Lions at Lucian-Hamilton Field in Austin, Texas, on April 4-5, never trailed.

St. Edward's scored four runs in the top of the top of the third inning to break a scoreless tie. Holub had a two-run single and scored on an error for a 3-0 lead, and Shepherd drove in another run on a one-out single.

UAFS cut its deficit in half in the bottom of the fourth inning. Easley led off with a single and Powell reached on a fielder's choice, and both scored on a two-out error.

The Hilltoppers added a single run in the top of the fifth inning when right Mackin led off with a single and scored on a one-out sacrifice bunt by Shepherd. They added another run in the top of the sixth inning on a one-out, RBI single by McPhail.

UAFS again cut its deficit in half in the bottom of the seventh inning on a two-out, two-run double by Young that made it 6-4, and the Lions tied the game in the bottom of the eighth inning on a two-out, bases-loaded, two-run single by Hurt.

Pace got one out in the top of the ninth before the game was halted by a weather delay at approximately 10:15 p.m.
 
HEARTLAND CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
NO. 4 ST. EDWARD'S 10, NO. 3 UAFS 7
St. Edward's   004      011      000      04        --          10        16        2
UAFS              000      200      22        01        --          7          12        2
Sabatino, Vandament (8), Pettinati (8) and Lammons; Van Kooten, Highfill (4), Pace (6), Lindley (11) and Hurt. W – Pettinati, 3-0. L – Pace, 4-3. HRs – UAFS, Young (7)