Diving catch by Adams preserves title for Dixie State

 Diving catch by Brett Adams gives PacWest LWS title to Dixie St.

Box Score

St. GEORGE, UT - Dixie State CF Brett Adams made a diving grab of a sinking line drive with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, robbing Grand Canyon 3B Matt Fox of an extra-base hit and giving his Red Storm the 2009 Pacific West Conference Little World Series Championship Saturday night in St. George, UT.

Adams, who hit .615 in the tournament and was 2 for 5 on Saturday night, preserved the 9-8 win with a spectacular spread-eagle catch just before Fox's liner was about to hit the turf.

The catch and resulting victory sent Dixie State players spilling out on to the field in what was a frenetic finish to the four-day event.

The Red Storm led 9-4 heading into the bottom of the ninth, but Grand Canyon put together a rally that ended when Austin Stockfisch cranked a monstrous three-run shot into the darkness of deep right-center field to chisel the GCU deficit down to one. Fox then ripped the line drive to centerfield that could have skipped by Adams to the wall had the Red Storm outfielder not made the play of the evening.

Dixie State scored seven times in the first two innings to build a 7-0 lead mostly on power shots out of Bruce Hurst Stadium. Tyson Littlewood, Drew Oldfield, Tony Nelson and Jimmy Dever each belted home runs in the contest for Dixie State.

Dever finished the game 4 for 5 with three RBI, two doubles and a run scored, while Aaron Friend, Littlewood, Nelson, Adams and Tim Mott each smacked two base hits.

PJ Garcia, Jeff Mutchler and Tyler Bair each had two hits for the Antelopes.

Jayson Madson went 6.2 innings in relief to earn the victory. He struck out four and permitted one earned run.

Nelson was named the tournament's MVP after hitting .467 with a LWS-leading eight RBI. He also was spectacular in the field with no errors, nine assists, and multiple double plays. He wowed the crowd by fielding a ball up the middle near second base that he flipped to his shortstop who fired the runner out at first base.

The All-Tournament Team featured four Dixie State players, two Grand Canyon representatives, two players from Hawaii Pacific, and one each from the three UPR programs.

All-Tournament Team

Joseph Negron - UPR-Bayamon

Jose Huertas - UPR-Mayaguez

Eric Rosario - UPR-Rio Piedras

Aaron Asher - HPU

Blake Amaral - HPU

Matt Fox - GCU

John Stanko - GCU

Brett Adams - Dixie St.

Jayson Madson - Dixie St.

Aaron Friend - Dixie St.

Tony Nelson - Dixie St. - MVP