Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 MASON, Ohio- The Royals baseball team opened up their 2016 NCCAA National Championship bid with a win in the first game of the day 9-7 over Southwestern Christian and a heartbreaking loss 3-2 to Campbellsville in the nightcap.

In game 1 the #6 seeded Royals took on the #3 seeded Southwestern Christian Eagles from Oklahoma. The Royals got off to a rough start as they allowed the Eagles to go ahead 6-0 after just two innings. The combination of walks and errors led to many of the runs, however, in the bottom of the second inning Tomas Rivera would get the Royals offense going with a 2 run blast to left field. Two batters later, Taran Tipton hit a triple in the left center field gap and would be awarded home after an over throw past third base. This cut the Eagles lead to 6-3. In the bottom of the fourth inning the Royals would take the lead for good with some clutch two out offense. Randy Rodriguez got the scoring started with a 2 RBI double that scored Jimmy Diven, who was running for catcher Tyler Dauphinee,  and Xanders Vazquez. Junior Fermin would follow up the double with a RBI single to right field to tie the contest at six. Fermin would then steal second base and come home to give the Royals the lead for the first and last time on a Broderick Rodocker RBI single. Rodocker advanced to second on the throw to the plate which allowed him to come around and score on Jose Fortuna's RBI single. The Royals would take over the lead 8-6 after the 5 run inning. The game remained there until the sixth when Southwestern Christian tacked on a run with a RBI double to pull within one. Warner then added to their lead in the 8th with a bases loaded walk by RIvera. Trey Norris then came in the ninth and closed the door on the Eagles to preserve a game 1 victory for Warner. Cole Roark got the start on the mound and went 6 innings only allowing 3 earned runs. Blaine Rhea and Dalton Kelley would provide stellar relief outings before Norris took over. Rivera finished the game going 2-3 with a homerun, triple, and 3 RBI's.

In game 2 of the day for the Royals they faced off with #2 seed Campbellsville University Tigers. Tyler Perkins took to the hill to try and give the Royals a 2-0 start in pool play. Perkins did not disappoint the fans that stuck around to watch the late contest as he threw 8.2 innings giving up the three runs and striking out 9 Tigers batters. The Royals got on the board early as Randy Rodriguez hit a leadoff double, moved to third on a Junior Fermin groundout, then came home on a Broderick Rodocker sac fly. In the third, Junior Fermin hit a single to center, stole second, and scored on a Jose Fortuna RBI single to give the Royals a 2-0 lead. Perkins looked to be cruising as he was throwing up zeros until the 8th inning when the Tigers finally came through with a 2 out 2 RBI double to left center to tie the game. Then in the bottom of the ninth, the Tigers were able to get another 2 out clutch hit to win the game in walk off fashion. The Royals were able to pound out 10 hits but were unable to get a big hit at any point in the game to open up the scoring. Rodriguez, Fortuna, Taran Tipton, and Gerson Sotolongo all went 2-4 in the contest.

Warner is back on the field just 11.5 hours after the conclusion of the game last night as they take on #7 seed Trinity Christian at 11 am on Prasco Park on Thursday.