The Basics 

 NCAA South Regional
Score: No. 6 Roanoke 15, No. 1 Salisbury 5
Records: Roanoke 30-16, Salisbury 31-10
Location: Danville, Va.

The Lead: Sixth-seeded Roanoke College opened the 2017 NCAA Baseball South Regional Tournament by knocking off top-seed Salisbury 15-5 on Thursday afternoon in Danville, Va.

The Maroons will now play at 2:30 p.m. on Friday versus the loser of the game between No. 3 Rowan and No. 4 Emory slated for Thursday evening.  

How it Happened

• With Salisbury up 1-0 in the top of the third inning, RC loaded the bases with no outs before Collier Donald singled home Will Black to tie the game. Will Decker then followed with a bases clearing triple to give the Maroons a 4-1 advantage. Two batters later, Sam Watson was able to plate Decker with a groundout to make it a 5-1 game.
• In the RC fourth inning, Black walked and Eli Sumpter singled with one out. Sean Guida singled to score Black and push the RC lead to 6-1.
• Salisbury came back in the home half of the fourth inning, loading the bases with no outs but Roanoke starter John Ruhlman retired the next three hitters, including a strike out to end inning and the SU threat.
• With Roanoke up 7-1 in the sixth inning, the Maroons put the game away with six runs on four hits highlighted by RBI singles from Donald, Watson and Scott Ellis that helped the Maroons push ahead 13-1.
• Salisbury made it a 13-5 game with four runs in its half of the sixth inning but RC tacked on two runs in the top of the ninth. Sumpter reached on an error with one out and Guida brought him in with an RBI triple and would later score on a Donald sacrifice fly to make it 15-5.
• Roanoke recorded 13 hits led by Donald, Decker and Watson with three each. The trio all had three RBI in the game as well.
• Ruhlman improved to 5-6 on the season after going six innings. He allowed five runs on nine hits and tied a season-high with eight strike outs. Rawlings Cumbea allowed two hits to pick up the three inning save.
• Pete Grasso suffered his first loss of the season as the right-hander dropped to 8-1 after giving up 10 runs and nine hits. The 15 runs matches a season-high allowed by the Sea Gulls who are ranked No. 9 in the nation in the latest D3baseball.com Top-25 Poll.
• Playing in its first NCAA Tournament game in program history, the victory gives RC its 30^th win of the season.

Up Next: The Maroons will now play at 2:30 p.m. on Friday versus the loser of the game between No. 3 Rowan and No. 4 Emory slated for Thursday evening.  

For schedule, video links, ticket information and directions for the NCAA South Regional click here.