Black College World Series title huge for Bluefield State baseball

May 6—BLUEFIELD — Bluefield State College head baseball coach Drew Bailey was a late hire headed into the second shakiest college spring sports season in American history thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After three straight losses, the Big Blues posted a 6-4 win over Bluefield College that was Bluefield State's first in 15 years. The Blue wrapped up February with three straight wins to break even for the month at 6-6. Then early in March came the first of what would amount to 14 games cancelled, in one way or another attributable to COVID.

"We just tried to stay focused on the day that we're in and just be in the moment. We worked extremely hard this year given the fact that we were put in quarantine. And the guys got a brand-new coach six weeks before the season started," said Bailey.

Baseball being the funny game it is, the former Concord University baseball standout wasn't in the wrong place at the wrong time when he took the Bluefield State job. Quite the opposite.

This past Saturday night, the Big Blue defeated Xavier of Louisiana 7-2 in the second game of a double elimination championship showdown, making Bluefield State the first champions of the newly-created Black College World Series at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Alabama.

In Bailey's first season with the program, Bluefield State managed to win its first-ever championship of any kind in baseball. The Big Blues (15-12) also wrapped up the program's first-ever winning season.

"We only played 27 games this year ... but this is the first time we've ever had a winning season. It's the first time we've played for any type of championship or won any type of championship," said Bailey.

"We did some good things."

The Black College World Series is an independent post-season baseball tournament, sponsored by the Montgomery Biscuits — a Class AA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays that plays at Riverwalk Stadium — Black College Nines and the BCSG-360.

This week's inaugural double-elimination bracket featured eight Historically Black Colleges and Universities drawn from the NCAA Division II and NAIA ranks.

Division II representatives included Savannah State, Bluefield State, Kentucky State and Lane College The NAIA contingent included Xavier, Rust (Miss.), Florida Memorial and Edward Water (Fla.).

"The Black College Nines is a web site that covers HBCU ... historically black college baseball. They run a small college Top 10 poll and they wanted you to be ranked in that Top 10 in order to receive a bid. So we got an at-large bid to the tournament," Bailey explained.

"We found out about two weeks before the tournament that we were going," he said. "We just continued to practice and continued to do what we usually do."

They went on to do what Bluefield State College baseball had never done before.

The Big Blue opened tournament play in Montgomery with a 5-4 win over Edward Waters last Wednesday. The victory was collected in relief by pitcher Kenrick Mendez (1-1) and highlighted by doubles from Tanner Brandon — the eventual tournament MVP — and senior Kevon Moxey. Taylor Tibbs doubled in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Not only did Bluefield State get the job done on only five hits, starter Daniel Rayfield gave up nine hits over 5 1-3 innings while allowing only four runs — only three of which were earned.

A 4-1 victory versus top-seeded Xavier on Thursday served notice that the Big Blue might a surprise contender for the tournament crown. The Gold Rush, the nation's only Catholic HBCU, boasted the tournament's best record.

Brandon (1-2) struck out seven en route to picking up the victory in the game, helping his cause with an RBI double, also scoring on a wild pitch. But the most astonishing statistic was the line of Xavier starting pitcher Blair Frederick, an LSU transfer who absorbed the loss after striking out 17 Bluefield State batters over six innings.

At one point, Frederick whiffed eight of nine batters faced. In spite of all the fireworks, the two earned runs he allowed over the same span proved enough to do him in.

"I'm not going to say we were the most talented team in the tournament. But we were definitely the most disciplined. We had luck on our side but we stayed steady with our approach. It was exciting. My phone hasn't stopped ringing since Saturday night," said Bailey.

In Friday's showdown with Florida Memorial, a four-run rally in the sixth inning followed by a three-run burst in the seventh put the Big Blue ahead for keeps, setting the stage for Saturday's championship rematch with Xavier.

Bluefield State hammered out 14 hits in that game. J.R. McRee went 4-for-5 with a triple and three RBIs, Brandon went 2-for-5 with three RBIs, Roman Moore had a double and an RBI, Shane Reviello went 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs and C.J. Cooper went 2-for-3.

Mendez (2-1) sealed the victory at the end with three innings of shutout relief, striking out five and walking none. For the tournament, Mendez went nine innings in relief over five games and didn't allow a run out of the bullpen.

Unsurprisingly, Xavier battled its way out of the loser's bracket looking for redemption and a measure of revenge. But the Gold Rush would have to beat the Big Blue twice on Saturday to assume the crown.

"They were 24-6 coming into the tournament. Xavier University out of Louisiana ... they were really talented," said Bailey, who had some pitching quandaries to resolve in advance of the finals.

"One of my good buddies called me and we were just talking about the tournament. He told me, 'Look, hold off on throwing [Austin Stambaugh]. ' He's one of our better outfielders and was one of my better arms but it had just worked out to where I hadn't thrown him. He's the one who went seven perfect innings against Bluefield College this year. I hadn't thrown him yet, so I saved him for Game 2. I figured it was going to be really difficult for them to beat us twice in the same day," Bailey said.

The Gold Rush exploded at the plate in Game 1, shelling Bluefield State with 16 hits in a 16-2 rout. Starter Howie Spencer and a committee of four BSC relief pitchers remembered The Alamo while Xavier rained down two home runs and five doubles — including one by Frederick.

Over the final six innings of the seven-inning onslaught, Bluefield State backups bought some rest for the starting lineup while Bailey readied to play the ace up his sleeve.

"We were playing for Game 2 at that point. I'd saved one of our best starters and he's been one of our best big game guys this year. Stambaugh went out there for nine innings ... like 125 pitches ... he was actually pretty efficient. He did a really good job for us," Bailey said.

The Big Blue scored six runs in the first inning of Game 2 and Stambaugh retained custody of the lead until the final out.

Going the distance, he struck out seven and walked five, giving up two runs — only one of which was earned.

The offense was economical and effective. Bluefield State got its seven runs across on five hits, offensive highlights including a 2-for-3 showing with two RBIs by Reviello and an RBI triple by Moxey.

"It was fortunate the way it worked out. We had just enough pitching. We weren't very deep on the mound but everything just worked out in our favor. Other than the one game, we pitched extremely well and we played really good defense the whole tournament," said Bailey.

"We beat a team two out of three that had two Division I transfers. We really played good baseball.

I'm just really excited looking forward," said the BSC skipper, who has four Division I transfers coming in next year as part of his first recruiting class..

"Just being able to build on this — this is just so big for our program," Bailey said.