TBC Eagles Baseball rebounded from a heart-breaking extra-inning loss in Tuesday night's opening round of the South Region Tournament by defeating the Chargers of Southeastern Baptist College 3-1 Wednesday morning. The Eagles remain alive and will play again on Thursday.

Wednesday: Eagles 3, Southeastern Baptist 1

Michael Cardenas did his job on the mound, and the offense gave him just enough run support late in the game as Trinity Baptist College defeated the Chargers 3-1 in Game 5 of the tournament.

Cardenas pitched 6 fantastic innings, allowing just 1 earned run on 6 hits. He walked 5 and struck out 5.

Cardenas worked his way out of trouble multiple times in the middle to late innings, twice thwarting threats with 2 or 3 on and nobody out. In the fifth, the Chargers loaded the bases on a single and two walks. Cardenas then induced a force out at the plate and got a huge strikeout before ending the inning on a line drive that Seth Reeves caught at second base.

One inning later, the first two Chargers reached on singles, and after a double steal, Cardenas got a sacrifice fly that scored a run, a ground ball, and a fly out to end the inning. Cardenas also ended a bases-loaded, two-out situation in the fourth with a popup to Reeves.

Darren Goeke, Jr. pitched a hitless, scoreless seventh with a walk and then two strikeouts to end it and earn his first save of the season.

Ryan Onkst drove in the official game-winning run with a two-out base hit that brought in Reeves (walk). Gavin Williams followed with a double to the center-field fence that allowed courtesy runner Dominic Gattinella to score from first base.

Leading 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth, the Eagles added a big insurance run with a well-executed squeeze bunt from Nate Nogueras. Gattinella, pinch running for Colin Sepulveda (pinch hit single), beat the flip to the plate and got in under the tag.

The Eagles will await their next opponent – the loser between Columbia International and Bob Jones Universities. TBC will play that elimination game at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday. A win means a second game later in the day for a chance at the title round.

Tuesday: Paine 2, Eagles 1 (8 Innings)

In the opening round, 7th seeded TBC took #2 Paine College into extra innings before falling 2-1. 

Jacob Brigman was stellar with 7.2 innings, allowing just 2 earned runs on 4 hits while walking 4 and striking out 9.

Paine's Christian Tibabijo was just as stingy on the mound for the Lions. He allowed only 1 eaned run on 4 hits and 5 walks while fanning 7. 

TBC scored first in the top of the fourth thanks to Seth Reeves's double that drove in Parker Laffrey, who started the inning with a walk. Paine, though, responded in the bottom half with a leadoff double and a single from Jhoel Malone to drive in the tying run. The game remained 1-1 until the bottom of the eighth when Dominique Page singled home Pablo Rivera with two outs. 

Ryan Onkst was 2 for 2 for the Eagles.