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Show T-birds-Antelopes District Seven Powers Lock Horns Two of NAIA District Seven's perennial powers will clash when Southern Utah State's Thunderbirds travel to Phoenix for five games with Grand Canyon College. Action gets underway today, Thursday, with a double-header. A single game is slated for Friday and another double-header closes out the series on Saturday. The T-Birds and Grand Canyon have been involved in the district playoffs for the last three years, and the Antelopes beat SUSC twice for the championship. Last year SUSC nipped Grand Canyon 3-2 in the first round on the way to their first district title ever. So far this season, Coach Dave Brazell's crew is 24-11-1 after sweeping three games from Western New Mexico last week. The Antelopes are currently ranked number eight in the NAIA national coaches' pool. Rob Alonzo, a 6-0, 170-pound 170-pound senior outfielder, leads the Antelopes on batting with a .382 average. Tom Rosati, a 5-10, 170-pound 170-pound junior right-hander, leads GCC in pitching with a 5-1 mark and a 2.55 ERA. The T-Birds, 6-6-1 on the season, are fresh from a three-game sweep of Mesa State. SUSC needs only to win one game when the Mavericks come to Cedar City to clinich a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Con-ference playoff berth. SUSC won the opening contest 6-2 behind the six-hit pitching of Garn Jorgensen and Gordon Dunn. Second baseman Ivan Otero and first baseman Bob Piatt both had three hits while third baseman Rick Kienast hit a homerun. Jed Murray picked up his first victory of the season as the T-Birds scored seven runs on five straight singles for a comeback 10-6 win the the second game. Center fielder John Borla cracked out three hits including a homerun and double. Roy Jewkes fired a five-hitter five-hitter in the series finale as SUSC won 5-1. Jewkes struck out six and didn't walk a man. Piatt and left fielder Tony Pappas both smacked out two hits. Piatt, a sophomore from Cedar City, went seven for ten in the series to raise his average to .410, best on the team. Otero, a junior, Bronx, NY, (.370), Warren Hatch, senior from Roy (.364), Borla, junior from Helper (.333) and Kienast, senior from Long Beach, are T-Birds T-Birds hitting over .300. Hatch leads the squad in homeruns (2) and RBI's (9). Jorgensen, a sophomore from Provo, and Rex Shipp, sophomore from Joseph, lead the T-Bird pitching staff in wins with two each, w hile Shipp has the lowest ERA (2.25). The T-Birds return to Cedar City next week to host Northern Arizona for three games. |