Kellen Lane is swamped by his teammates after hitting a two-run walk off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning against UC-San Diego in the NCAA Div. II Baseball Championship at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary, N.C.
CARY, N.C. — Bottom of the ninth inning. Two outs. Tie game. It might as well have been a dream for Kellen Lane.
Mike Sharp provided the pinch, telling Lane to go get the hit to send his team to the National Championship game. Lane provided the punch.
With one surprising swing of the bat, Lane hit the first home run of his career to give Emporia State a 5-3 victory over UC San Diego and a date in Saturday’s National Championship game.
“I didn’t believe it at first,” Lane said. “The umpire told me to keep running, and that’s what I did.”
Lane should have known better.
The unexpected has become the expected in the Hornets’ run to their first National title game since 1987 and first-ever as an NCAA Division II team.
For the complete story see the Gazette print edition or the online print edition at http://www.emporiagazette.com/pdf. To subscribe to the print edition or the online print edition go to http://www.emporiagazette.com/subscribe.
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beth (anonymous) says...
GREAT WIN!!! Bring home a championship on Saturday so we really can "Celebrate Emporia!"
May 29, 2009 at 1:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )