Courtesy of Georgia Gwinnett College Sports Information

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – Two games were completed before rain halted the third contest in the ninth inning during the opening day of the 2019 Association of Independent Institutions Baseball Championship at the Georgia Gwinnett College's Grizzly Baseball Complex.

No. 2-seeded Talladega College (Ala.) earned a 5-0 victory against No. 3 Fisher College (Mass.) after No. 4 Edward Waters College (Fla.) picked up a 7-4 triumph against No. 5 College of the Ozarks (Mo.) in the first game of the day. GGC, the No. 1 seed, was leading Edward Waters 12-1 with one out in the top of the ninth inning when rain suspended play.

Sunday's tournament schedule will begin with College of the Ozarks playing Fisher at 11 a.m. The conclusion of the GGC-Edward Waters suspended game will follow, with the winning team playing Talladega at 3 p.m. The losing team from the suspended contest will return to play the winner of the 11 a.m. contest at 7 p.m.

Three Talladega College pitchers combined to toss a shutout and advance the Tornadoes through the winner's bracket. The game featured three rain delays. Starting pitcher Julian Fitts allowed one hit across five innings before Daniel Castillo registered five strikeouts in three innings. Robin Ventura retired all three batters he faced in the ninth inning.

The Falcons managed just two hits off the Tornadoes pitching, one by Ivan Rivera (Brooklyn, NY) and one by Jonathan Rosado (Bayamon, PR). The Tornadoes got on the board in the first inning off of starter Zack Leblanc (Salem, MA) on a sacrifice fly from Manuel Caballero to take a 1-0 after one inning. Julian Lopez drove in two runs from the top of the batting order, hitting a two-run single in the fifth inning to give the Tornadoes a 3-0 lead. TC added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the 8th to go up 5-0 and held on for the victory. 

Fisher will take on the College of the Ozarks Sunday morning at 11am in the elimination game.