KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI-- The Dallas Christian College Baseball team defeated NCCAA World Series host Kansas Christian 5-4 on a walk-off walk by Stefon Reyes. This is the first NCCAA D1 World Series victory for the Crusaders.

After a 5 hour rain delay, DCC started off strong and held a 2-0 lead through six innings of play after a sacrifice ground out by Cooper Ness and an RBI single by Jaidon Erivez. KCC scored 3 runs in the 7th inning to snag a 3-2 lead. Bryce Garza was phenomenal on the mound, throwing 158 pitches in 8.1 innings of work recording 9 strikeouts, allowing 3 earned runs and 11 hits. Andrew Hickey picked up the win with .2 innings of work.

In the bottom of the 9th inning Marcos Franjul stepped up to the plate and cranked a double to deep left-center field to make the score 4-3. Zeke Humek came up with a huge pinch hit RBI single to tie the game at 4. Stefon Reyes is third in the NCCAA in walks. He was selective and worked the count to 3-2 and foule a couple of pitches off to stay alive. He watched ball 4 and scored Jake Tumey on a game-winning walk.

The Crusaders were down but never out. They fought through adversity and took it one pitch at a time. After the game Stefon Reyes credited his teammates. "Everyone stayed ready and did not shy away from the moment," said Reyes. "Zeke came up huge with the game-tying single, and I knew if I could work the count a good result would happen. DCC will play tomorrow in the winner's bracket at 9 a.m. against Southwestern Christian University.