The No. 5 seeded Park University baseball program in their first NAIA Opening Round appearance, defeated the No. 4 seeded University of Saint Francis (Ind.) in the Williamsburg Bracket, 6-1. The Pirates and Cougars both were hosted by the No. 3 nationally ranked Patriots of University of Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky.

The Pirates are now 36-17 on the year and the tournament runner-up of the Heart of America Athletic Conference, while the Cougars are now 37-18 and were also the conference tournament runner-up of the Crossroads League.

Both of these teams also have common ground with surpassing their programs' single-season wins records this year, which were both 34 wins previously.

On the game, Park had 11 hits and Saint Francis had 10 hits, but there were eight runners left stranded for the Cougars.

Adam Stilts started on the bump for the Pirates and is the new single-season wins record holder at Park with 10 wins, moving to 10-2 on the season.

The Heart Second Team All-Conference pitcher went 8.1 innings pitched with five strikeouts and did not walk a single batter.

Park got off to a great start in the top of the first with Alex Rodriguez' lead-off double down the right field line. The two-hole, Billy Rivera, followed that up with a single through the left side to set up Gilberto Torres' sacrifice fly to score the first run of the Williamsburg Bracket. Ricardo Hernandez then singled through the left side to bring home a hustling Rivera with two outs for the 2-0 lead.
Stilts would throw eight scoreless innings to squash chances from the Cougars.

With their ace on the mound, the Pirates were able to score in four more innings along the way.

In the fourth inning, Corey Bradford got a good barrel on a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 3-0.

Sanchez would single through the left side to score Rivera for a second time to make it 4-0 in the top of the seventh.

The score was then bumped up to a 5-0 lead after Yadiel Santana made the most of his pinch-hit opportunity with an RBI single to score Bradford in the eighth inning.

Sanchez showed what he could do on the base-paths as well and stole third in the top of the ninth inning, which was accompanied with a throw that went into leftfield that allowed Sanchez to come in for the sixth run.

The Couguars were able to scratch across a run in the bottom of the ninth on a sacrifice fly, credited to Stilts. Bryce Perdieu came in for his 21^st appearance of the season and did his job with a first pitch out on the sacrifice fly and then struck out his next batter to end the game, 6-1.

Perdieu is now tied for the single-season appearance record with 21, tying his pitching coach Adam Clay.

Rodriguez, Sanchez, and Hernandez all stood out for Park with two-hit days in their first taste of NAIA post-season competition.

Where the Cougars' staff had a harder time was walks, as the Pirates drew five walks as a squad to consistently have baserunners.

The Pirates will now play No. 1 seeded Cumberlands at around 3:45pm (CT) on Monday, May 13 to continue in the Opening Round action. WATCH
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