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ABILENE, Texas - For the second time in two days the Concordia-Texas Tornados knocked off the nationally-ranked UT-Tyler Patriots and moved on to the championship game Sunday. The Patriots took an early 3-0 lead in the second inning, but CTX countered with two runs apiece in the second, third, and fourth innings and held on for a 7-3 win in the American Southwest Conference  Championship Round.

Both teams were facing elimination after picking up losses in the tournament, but CTX sent UTT packing and will face McMurry Sunday in the championship game. Nick Cemerek and Stephen Szkotak each drove in two runs to help the Tornados offensively and Gerry Morrison moved to 3-0 on the year in just his fourth start of the season.

Morris tossed 6.1 innings, scattered nine hits, gave up three unearned runs, walked two and struck out six. The Patriots scored three runs after a two-out error when Chad Daleiden hit a 3-run homer for his seventh of the season.

The Tornados responded with two runs in the second with an RBI single from Szkotak and a sacrifice fly from Kyle Rhodes. Then, in the third Cmerek drove in a run and Szkotak struck again with an RBI single. Rhodes scored on an error in the fourth and Brian Wernecke drove in his eighth run of the tournament with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 6-3.

CTX added one insurance run in the bottom of the seventh inning with another sacrifice fly to score Wernecke. However, the Patriots who ended their regular season with a 36-9 record, couldn’t figure out Morrison or reliever Peter Ontiveros. Ontiveros came in and pitched 2.2 innings, allowed three hits, walked one and struck out two to pick up the save.

UT-Tyler’s Ryan Campbell picked up the loss; he gave up seven runs (five earned), walked two and struck out five in six innings of work. Once CTX got past Campbell, the Patriots’ Lex Wolfe and Colby Munchrath combined for two innings of scoreless relief.

Concordia-Texas improved to 30-15 on the year and will have to beat McMurry twice to take the ASC title from the hosts. The winner will receive the automatic bid to play in the West Region Tournament, which will also be hosted at Walt Driggers Field and McMurry University.