LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The University of Arkansas at Monticello baseball team closed out the finals of the 2024 GAC Championships on Saturday afternoon. The No. 1 seeded Boll Weevils were the home team in the match-up, taking on the No. 2 seeded Wonder Boys of Arkansas Tech. After opening the day with a 9-3 loss, UAM claimed the tournament championship with an 8-5 win.
UAM claimed both the regular season and tournament titles in the 2024 season, seeing their first regular season crown since the 2019 season, and the first tournament win since 2017. Monticello saw
Camden Tanner,
Chase Cripps, and
Nelson Mercado each made the All-Tournament Team and
Chaz Poppy claimed the Conference Tournament MVP.
Game 1, 9 Innings
Arkansas Tech: 9, Arkansas-Monticello: 3
WP: Mason Willis (4-1)
LP:
Maxim Mrakovcic (3-7)
SV: None
Scoring Recap:
The Wonder Boys struck first in game one of the day, scoring a single run in the first.
Parker Dorrance drove in
Chase Cripps in the second to tie the game at 1-1.
Arkansas Tech's offense put up six runs in the fourth and two runs in the sixth to take a 9-1 lead over Monticello.
An RBI double from
Kirk Woolf, followed by an RBI single from
Cade Cancilla shrank the Tech lead to 9-3. The effort fell short, as the Weevils dropped the game with the Wonder Boys.
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, 9 Innings
Arkansas Tech: 5, Arkansas-Monticello: 8
WP:
Dylan Vail (5-1)
LP: Evan Gaunt (2-1)
SV:
Nelson Mercado (8)
Scoring Recap:
Chaz Poppy kicked off the final game of the tournament with a three run bomb in the first inning. Tech scored three runs of their own in the second to tie the game at three all.
Poppy tacked on the Boll Weevils fourth and fifth runs in the third with his second home run of the contest.
Camden Tanner scored in the fifth on a bases loaded walk, followed by two RBI in the eighth to increase the Monticello lead to 8-3.
After two ATU runs in the top of the ninth, UAM closed out the final out of the ball game to take the conference title.
UP NEXT
Arkansas-Monticello will be holding a watch party of the 2024 NCAA DII baseball championship selection show tomorrow, May 12, at 9:30 p.m. in the UAM BCM on campus. For those that can't make the watch party, the selection show will be live streamed at
NCAA.com.
All live streams and live stats will be available as clickable links on the
UAM Baseball schedule.
How to follow the Weevils: For more information on Arkansas-Monticello Weevils Baseball, visit
www.uamsports.com and follow the team's social media channels by searching "Weevils Baseball" on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
#WeevilNation | #WeEvil