WALESKA, Ga. – After a two-hour delay, the 13th-ranked Loyola Wolf Pack baseball team started the NAIA National Championship Opening Round on Monday with a 7-4 win over No. 25 Oakland City. The No. 2 seed Wolf Pack will play either No. 5 Reinhardt or (RV) Ave Maria at 3 p.m. CDT on Tuesday.
The No. 3 seed Mighty Oaks jumped out to an early lead with a three-run home run in the first inning. Loyola starter Thomas Hakimian, however, settled down to only allow two more hits in his 7.2 innings of work. He gave up those two hits in the third when Oakland City made it a 4-0 lead, but the junior sat down his opponents 1-2-3 in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. He finished his outing with seven strikeouts to earn the win.
Frank Fernandez received the save by pitching the final 1.1 innings. He struck out two and didn't allow a hit to preserve the lead.
Loyola got on the board in the bottom of the third after the Mighty Oaks made their lead four. Brandon Mooney doubled with one out and Myles Liggans singled to put two on, leading to RBI by Garrett Felix and Cole Romero, 4-2, during back-to-back at-bats.
The Wolf Pack took their first lead in the sixth, and it started with consecutive two-out hit-by-pitches for Drew Lee and Ben Harris. Jaxon Buratt made the Oakland City pitcher pay with a double down he right-field line, 4-3, and Mooney plated two more, 5-4, with a single to center to put the Pack on top. Mooney added a two-run blast in the eighth inning to extend Loyola's lead, 7-4, as well.
Pack Facts
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Loyola has won the first game of its last three trips to an NAIA National Championship Opening Round.
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After a shaky start where he gave up three runs in the first, Thomas Hakimian shut the Mighty Oaks down for the remainder of the game, tossing a career-high 7.2 innings while allowing just four hits and four runs to score.
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In his 10th start of the year, Hakimian now owns a 7-1 record as a pitcher this season. That's tied for the ninth-most wins in a season by a pitcher in program history.
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Frank Fernandez, who came in to finish the eighth inning as well as the ninth, picked up his fifth save of the season. That ties him with Caden Durand and four others for fifth on the program's single-season saves list.
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Brandon Mooney had a massive performance at the plate, going 3-for-5 with 4 RBI, a double, home run, and two runs scored. His last two plate appearances resulted in multiple runs scoring for the Pack, with a 2-RBI, go-ahead single in the sixth inning and a 2-run bomb to right to help put the game away for good.
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Chasing history again, Mooney has tied his own school record for most runs in a season with 73 this year. His three hits also brought him to a team-high 80 this year, which trails another of his school records, 81 hits in the 2023 season. He also is only three doubles away from tying the career doubles record at Loyola, now with 51 doubles in three years. He has 23 doubles in this season alone, which puts him second on the single-season doubles list.
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Myles Liggans and Cole Romero each recorded multiple hits in Monday's game, with Romero doubling to score Romero in the third. Romero is up to fifth on Loyola's career RBI list with 120 across two seasons.
Opening Round Schedule
Monday, May 12
Game 1 | #2 Loyola def. #3 Oakland City, 7-4
Game 2 | #1 Reinhardt def. #4 Ave Maria, 12-5
Tuesday, May 13
Game 3 | 11 a.m. CDT | #3 Oakland City vs. #4 Ave Maria
Game 4 | 3 p.m. CDT | #1 Reinhardt vs. #2 Loyola
Wednesday, May 14
Game 5 | 11 a.m. CDT | Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4
Game 6 | 3 p.m. CDT | Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5
Thursday, May 15
Game 7 (if necessary) | 11 a.m. CDT | Winner of Game 6 vs. Loser of Game 6
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