Easley, S.C. – After a thrilling regular season and a sensational postseason run the Warner Royals finish the 2019 baseball season as the NCCAA World Series National Championship Runner-Up.
 
The Royals have had an amazing season, finishing with a 41-23 record and cementing their spot as one of the top 2 teams in the nation in consecutive years.
 
The National Championship Game was a pitching duel all the way into the 8^th inning, when Concordia was able to put 5 runs and break the game wide-open in their favor.
 
The Royals answered back with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the 8^th but were unable to erase the 6 run deficit and fell to the Cardinals 6-2 in the NCCAA World Series National Championship Game.
 
Andres Fernandez took the mound for the Royals in what was his, team leading, 17^th start of the season.
 
Andres pitched 7 innings of magnificent baseball but things got away from the veteran right-hander in the 8^th inning and the Cardinals were able to put up 5 runs off 3 hits and 1 Royals defensive error.
 
Taylor Briggs and Michael Batten both came in to pitch in relief efforts and managed to slow down the Cardinals offense in the last two innings of play.
 
The Royals offensive fire power was held at bay this afternoon by the Cardinals pitching staff, who only allowed 7 hits to a team that averaged over 9 hits a game this year.
 
The Royals got their 2 runs in the 8^th inning off a single from Trey Matthews, which scored Rio Russell and a ground ball to 2^nd base, hit by Rafael Astacio, which scored Ronny Penalo.
 
Trey Matthews and Anthony Martinez each had multiple hits in the game.
 
The Royals finished this season with 41 wins, the most under Head Coach Jeff Sikes in the Dakstats era and have repeated as NCCAA National Championship Runner-Up in back-to-back seasons.