Air Force Wins Service Academies Baseball Classic
2/25/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Air Force records its fifth Service Academies Championship, more than any other team. The Falcons won the tournament in 1990 and 1991, then tied for the title in '96 before winning it again in 1999. Air Force went 2-1 in round robin play this year, defeating Army and Navy and losing to Memphis.
Koegel, 2-1 this season, had the best outing of his career, striking out a career-high 10 batters and allowing only two walks. He never faced more than five Memphis batters in any inning.
Tournament MVP Mike Thiessen started the scoring with his third home run of the season, smashing Tiger starter Ryan O'Malley's first pitch of the second inning over the left field wall. Thiessen hit two homers during the tournament, the other one a game-winning two-run shot in the tenth inning against Navy in the Falcons' 4-2 victory on Friday. He was 5-for-15 in the team's four games with three RBI and four runs scored.
Thiessen and Koegel joined teammates Price Paramore and MikeTufte on the All-Tournament Team. Paramore was 7-for-16 during the tournament with a double, triple and two RBI. Tufte threw eight strong innings in the Falcons♠5-0 victory against Army in the tournament's opener.
Memphis, 6-1, tied the score with a run of its own in the bottom of the second as Joshua Payne led off with a double and scored on James Rouse's groundout.
Brian LaBasco put the Falcons back on top with a sacrifice fly in the third, plating Daniel Petro, who led off the inning with a single, advanced to second on a passed ball and went to third on Nelson Prouty's single. The Falcons posted four hits in the inning, but it stalled when David Diehl was thrown out at home attempting to score from second base on a single by Thiessen.
Air Force, 11-5, closed out the scoring with an insurance run in the fifth when Paramore hit a two-out double to left field, scoring Prouty.
Air Force returns home for four games next week. The Falcons take on Nebraska-Omaha on Thursday, Mar. 1, at 1 p.m., then Northern Iowa comes to Colorado Springs for a three-game series starting on Friday, Mar. 2 at 1 p.m.
