College team without a school walks off in NCAAs

Birmingham-Southern College no longer exists. But its baseball team certainly does.

The Alabama school shut its doors Friday, two months after announcing it would close at the end of the 2023-24 academic year. The baseball team, though? It’s still alive and well.

The Panthers scored a dramatic 9-7 walk-off victory over Randolph-Macon College in an elimination game on Saturday in the 2024 NCAA Division III World Series in Eastlake, Ohio. With the score tied, 7-7, and a runner on first in the bottom of the ninth, junior first baseman Jackson Webster got an 0-2 breaking ball to his liking. The rest was history.

Even if Birmingham-Southern doesn’t come away with the Division III championship, it has been quite the story as the baseball team played for its life in the face of its school’s impending closure. The Panthers swept through their NCAA Regional and Super Regional before falling into the elimination bracket with a loss to Salve Regina in their World Series opener.

After the dramatic victory on Saturday, though, Birmingham-Southern is staying alive -- for at least one more day.