The Belmont Abbey baseball team culminated its Cinderella run through the NCAA Southeast Regional Title with an 11-5 win over the top-seeded USC Aiken Pacers this afternoon at Roberto Hernandez Stadium in Aiken, South Carolina. The Abbey clinches the first appearance in the NCAA Division II College World Series in school history. The sixth-seeded Crusaders defeated the top three seeds in the region, including two presently ranked in the top ten national rankings.

The World Series will take place May 23-30 at the USA Baseball National Training Center in Cary, North Carolina.

The Pacers (42-19) started Sunday's regional final with a run in the first as Ken Raborn doubled in Alex Franklin. USCA had the chance to add more but could not due to a baserunning error as Raborn tried to stop between third and home on a single by Jamie Benjamin only to be caught in a rundown to end the inning.

The score was 1-0 until the bottom of the third as Belmont Abbey got to USCA starter Jeremy Smith. Patrick Atwell drew a leadoff walk and then scored from first on Tyler McKenzie's RBI double down the left field line. McKenzie then scored on a Daniel Kassouf single. Danny Brion then took the next pitch from Smith over the wall in right center for the lone home run of the game and gave Belmont Abbey a 4-1 lead.

The Pacers threatened again in the fourth with runners at first and third with one out, but Sherrer grounded into a double play to end the inning. Another Aiken threat was snuffed out in the fifth when Atwell made a sliding catch in right field on a dying flare from Raborn for the third out with a runner on. USCA had the bases loaded in the sixth with one out but a ground ball that hit a baserunner was followed by a strikeout that ended the inning.

Belmont Abbey increased their lead to 6-1 in the seventh. Brion led off with a single followed by a walk to Spencer Sobol. After both runners moved up a base on a Carlos Vasquez sac bunt, Josh Frazier sent a high chopper over the infield that brought both runners in. That was the end of the day for Smith (L, 6-4), who walked four and struck out four.

Zach Horne started the eighth in relief of Merritt (W, 3-1). Merritt pitched seven full, scattering eight hits and allowing the one run and walking five while striking out three.

The lead increased to 11-1 in the bottom of the eighth as Belmont Abbey scored five more. The Pacers got some hits in the ninth, but were simply too far back to rally despite scoring four runs.

Belmont Abbey's Brion finished the day 3-for-5 with three runs and three RBIs while McKenzie was also 3-for-5 with a run and two RBIs. Frazier also drove in a pair as he went 1-for-4 with a run scored. Kassouf, named the tournament MVP, was 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored. Four of the Crusaders' 14 hits went for extra bases.

Benjamin had three hits in four at-bats to lead USC Aiken. He also scored twice. Raborn finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run. Gary Asbill and John Sherrer also had two hits each.

Belmont Abbey becomes the only team to be the low seed at a regional tournament to advance to the National Championships. The Crusaders will make their first national championship appearance in school history and face Mesa State as they battle for the Central Region championship later on Sunday.

NCAA Division II Southeast Regional All-Tournament Team
C - Ryan Query, Catawba
1b - Daniel Kassouf, Belmont Abbey
2b - Ken Raborn, USC Aiken
3b - Nick Aranas, USC Aiken
SS - Chandler Snell, GCSU
OF - Justin Vasquez, Belmont Abbey
OF - Alex Franklin, USC Aiken
OF - Patrick Atwell, Belmont Abbey
DH - Jared Barkdoll, Francis Marion
P - Justin Fry, USC Aiken
P - Andrew Morton, Belmont Abbey

Tournament Most Outstanding Player
Daniel Kassouf, Belmont Abbey

Belmont Abbey Head Coach Kermit Smith - "Joshua 1:9."

"We really found a specific way that we are successful on the field, and we've tried to repeat that down the stretch. It's been hard through exams and all that to keep up with practices."

"Looking back on it, winning Thursday was very important. At the conference, we won five games in 48 hours to win the conference championship. I really don't know, I just think it's simple that we're going to do it or not. And when we don't we're not very good."

Winning Thursday really helped, I wouldn't want to do it other way, but I'm not going to say we couldn't."

"We base everything off of base runners, not home runs or doubles. We really fight to get on base, and from that point we know that leads to runs being scored."

"We had to keep their leadoff guy off base, obviously that is the heart beat of their team. (Cody) McMorris is. But at the same time, their next three are as tough as it gets in college baseball. Alex Franklin, Ken Raborn, and Travis Howard are three legitimate hitters no matter what level or region."

"This is obviously the best day of Belmont Abbey baseball. This is only our second regional championship in any sport. It might be the biggest thing that's happened in our athletic department. The talks with recruiting kids, they came here with a purpose, to play baseball. Daniel Kassouf came to Belmont Abbey to help us win a national championship."

"We came in as a six seed and I promise you, not one talk of us being the underdog was mentioned. If you're in the regional, you're a good baseball team."

"I think it means a lot to these guys because we've really worked hard to get here."

"It's a really exciting time for our college. The seniors missed graduation yesterday to be here."

Southeast Regional MVP, Belmont Abbey First Baseman Daniel Kassouf - "We just get to keep playing. We are all just so excited. We knew we could do it, it's just a matter of putting it all together."

USC Aiken Head Coach Kenny Thomas - "We kind of ran ourselves out of the ball game in the first three innings with three unbelievable base running mistakes. That was a big key to the game. If we didn't make those mistakes early, the game might have been different. If we had scored some runs early, we might have had a chance to get ahead."

"All year long, we haven't been a team that been has been successful when we fall behind. When we lose, we lose big. When we fell behind, it got us out of our run and gun game.

"We had a chance to jump out four or five to nothing. If we did that with this team (Belmont Abbey), we could have gone out and really put it on that defense."

"Yes, we were tired. We had to play two ball games yesterday. But we can't use that as an excuse. We should be able to play on emotion if we're tired. When we got here this morning, I thought they were ready to play."

"The real kicker to the thing was Thursday night. We lost that game after they made seven errors, and we out-hit them. But we just gave that ball game away Thursday

"I was proud of our guys, just not how we played today. I thought we would bang it around again today. I felt if we had gotten those two or three runs in the first three innings, it would have been different."

"We're an aggressive team, we play hard, we run the bases hard. You can go back through the season, we played about 61 games and you can look and see us getting thrown out at 2nd, 3rd, and the plate. We were always aggressive."

"I'm really disappointed with being the bridesmaid again, we've been to the regional five straight seasons. I doubt any other program in the country can say that."

"I honestly thought we had a great chance today, but I was worried about the fatigue. We were just out there 12 hours before we had to be out there today."

"I really believed it was our year. Now I have to believe it's next year. It's going to be a hard summer."

"Last year I felt like I let the whole city of Aiken down, this year I feel like I let myself down a little bit, but I am proud of what they did to come back from where we were in Feruary to where we are now was a really great season."