LEXINGTON - Transylvania Baseball kept their season alive on Saturday and advanced to championship Sunday after defeating Beloit College 5-2 and Spalding University 6-5 in 12 innings in an all-time classic. The two wins on Saturday set a program record for wins in the NCAA tournament, and it's the first time the Pioneers have advanced to championship Sunday.

The Pioneers jumped on the Beloit Buccaneers early with a 4-0 lead after the 3rd inning. Trent Youngblood's RBI groundout put Transy on top 1-0 after the 1st inning, and an error on a stolen base by Youngblood scored Calvin Schubert for the 2-0 lead. Henry Mitcham hit his 6th homerun of the season to earn his 71st and 72nd RBI's on the year in the 3rd inning with a 2 run shot over the left center field wall to bring in Youngblood and make it 4-0.

After giving up a run in the bottom half of the 3rd, Austin Taylor brought the lead back to 4 with an RBI single to right field that scored Schubert.

The pitching staff was solid in the win, as Luke Patton went 5 innings strong and struck out 5 batters while allowing only 2 runs to earn his 6th win of the year. Gabe Dillard pitched 3 innings in relief and struck out 3 batters while allowing no base runners, and Matt Armstrong earned his 9th save of the year after coming in in the 9th and striking out 2 batters to secure the win.

Transy allowed just two free bases in the win.

After defeating Beloit, Transylvania then played Spalding University after the Golden Eagles lost a close game in the winners bracket to Birmingham Southern.

In the third game of the season between Spalding and Transy, the Pioneers would come out on top and would set the tone early with 4 runs in the opening innings. TU took a quick 2-0 lead after the 1st inning on back to back RBI doubles by Henry Mitcham and Austin Taylor. In the 2nd inning, Trent Pahl hit a 2 run home run over the left field wall to break the program's single season home run record with his 12th of the season.

The Golden Eagles scored 4 unanswered runs to tie the game, with 3 coming in the 3rd and another run coming in the 5th. The Pioneers would again take the lead 5-4 with Austin Taylor's 3rd home run of the season.

Transylvania had a chance to win it in the 9th after being up a run and having Spalding down to their last strike, but an error with runners on base led to a tie game. With runners on the corners for the Golden Eagles, Camryn Warfield struck out the batter to force extra innings.

Despite opportunities in the 10th and 11th innings, it would take 12 innings to get a winner. Colin McElfresh singled to lead off the 12th, and would advance to second on a sacrifice bunt by Bryce Dreher. Calvin Schubert would play hero for the Pioneers with a go ahead RBI single up the middle with 2 outs to give Transy the 6-5 lead.

In his second appearance of the day, Matt Armstrong would earn the win after sending the Golden Eagles down in order in the 12th. He'd strikeout the last 2 batters to cap off a 3 inning performance to earn his 3rd win of the season.

Up next: Transylvania will face Birmingham Southern tomorrow at noon in the regional championship game. Transylvania will have to beat the Panthers twice to advance to the super regional.