Sept. 4, 2008

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Just two years removed from being teammates on a GSAC championship team, CBU baseball alums Aaron Seuss and Aaron Hartsock are now battling head-to-head for a trip to the Carolina League (High-A) championship series, better known as the Mills Cup championship.

Seuss and the Potomac Nationals (Washington National) take on Hartsock and the Wilmington Blue Rocks (Kansas City Royals) in a best-of-three series that began Wednesday night with the Nationals taking a 1-0 victory in a 15-inning affair to take a 1-0 lead in the semifinal series.

The two teams met 20 times this season with the Nationals winning 13 of the 20, outscoring the Blue Rocks by 42 runs. They completed the regular-season with a four-game series against each other.

Potomac, which finished the regular-season 78-61 and swept the North Division titles, has never won a Carolina League championship, while Wilmington won the league title in 1998 and shared the league title in 1999 when the deciding game was canceled due to a hurricane.

Hartsock finished the regular-season 12-5 with a 3.46 ERA. He made 42 relief appearances, tossing 78 innings and striking out 58. His 12 wins tied him for the Carolina League lead and was the most among relievers. In his three seasons of professional baseball, Hartsock has led his respective league in wins.

Seuss, meanwhile, finished the season hitting .280 while splitting time between Hagerstown and Potomac. In 123 games, Seuss had 14 home runs, 70 RBIs, 75 runs and 37 doubles. He hit .316 with nine runs and two RBIs in the final 10 games of the regular-season.

In Wednesday's game, Hartsock, the 2006 GSAC Pitcher of the Year, tossed 1.2 scoreless innings of relief, allowing just one hit and striking out two. Seuss, the 2006 GSAC Player of the Year and two-time NAIA All-American, did not play.