NASHVILLE – Cedarville (26-14) rallied to defeat Trevecca Nazarene (28-20) in the ninth inning to advance to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament Championship with its 6-5 win at Jackson Field Monday night.

Trevecca has gone from the top seed to a team needing to win three games in a row to claim the G-MAC title. Trevecca will need to defeat Urbana on Tuesday in a game that starts at Noon. If Trevecca can defeat the Blue Knights, they will need to defeat Cedarville twice. First, they would face the Yellow Jackets in a 3:30 p.m. game on Tuesday. A TNU win would force the if necessary game at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday. A tall task, but similar to the Trojans effort last weekend in Cedarville when the Trojans had to defeat CU three of four games to win the conference title. 

Trailing 5-4 heading to the ninth inning, the Yellow Jackets got things going with back-to-back hits from Chris Ward and David Lenhardt.  After a wild pitch from Mason Dunn moved those runners into scoring position, David Ledbetter grounded out to second plating Ward. Two batters later Steve Cardwell would be issued a walk with the bases loaded to give CU a 6-5 lead they would never relinquish.

The Trojans took the first lead of the game in the second as Tyler Tichenor, an All-Conference selection for TNU, grounded into a fielder's choice scoring Hunter Newman who started the inning with a double to right center.

Trevecca pushed its lead to 2-0 in the fourth as Corey Crunk singled scoring Blake Rogers.

TNU would continue its scoring efforts in the fifth. With Cameron Boyett and Nick Howell in scoring position, Jordan Foreman singled to left field plating two and pushing Trevecca's lead to 4-0.

Cedarville would rally in the sixth to cut the score to 4-3.  A fielding error at first allowed Ward to score from third. In the next at-bat, Ryan Ledbetter grounded out to shortstop scoring Lenhardt. Cardwell capped off the scoring with a two-out single to right center plating another Yellow Jackets run.

After CU tied the game in the eighth on a Cam McWilliams RBI single, the Trojans would come back up to bat.  Tichenor led off the home half of the inning with a double followed by a Trae Weiss bunt single. After Howell was walked which loaded the bases, Mark Rayburn would be issued a walk as well to give TNU a 5-4 lead. Cedarville's Sean Larkin would get out of the jam as he induced a popout from Foreman and a line out from Newman.

The Yellow Jackets would capture the lead in the ninth and hold on as Larkin would issue just one walk and retire the other Trojan batters.

Larkin (5-1) tossed the final five innings for CU and allowed just one run on four hits while striking out six.

David Lenhardt, Ward and Cardwell led the Yellow Jacket offense with multiple with while Cardwell drove in a team-high two runs.

Dunn (2-3) took the loss for Trevecca tossing the final inning allowing two hits and two earned runs.

Rogers and Crunk led the Trojans each totaling two hits while Foreman drove in a team-high two runs.

Trevecca will face Urbana University (22-18) tomorrow in an elimination game starting at 12 p.m. at Jackson Field. In eight games between the two teams this season, both teams have won four apiece.