FORT WORTH -- The UTB/TSC baseball team fell short in its attempt to win the Red River Athletic Conference Baseball Championship in a 16-9 loss to host Texas Wesleyan University Wednesday at LaGrave Field.

The Rams (29-26) won the tournament for the first time since 2007.  The Scorpions (30-21) were playing in their first tournament championship game. Photo Gallery!

There is good news that came out of the Scorpions' success here -- UTB/TSC has qualified for the NAIA National Championship Opening Round for the first time. The Scorpions will play in one of nine Opening Round tournaments May 18-21, at either Lubbock, Oklahoma City (Okla.) or Jackson, Miss. The announcement of the tournament field and sites will not be made until May 14.

Losing a chance to win a championship put a sting on Coach Bryan Aughney.

"It stinks, I'm not going to lie," Aughney said. "We made some mistakes defensively that cost us. We had two big errors that led to big innings. Championship games, you have to play clean baseball."

The last four runs in the eight-run inning were unearned.

The Scorpions drew first blood in the first inning on Jorge Camorlinga's single and Matt Warner's triple, but TWU tied it at 1-1 in the second.

Chris Raley, who threw a shutout Saturday against Wiley College, pitched with three days' rest and was strong until the fourth inning. The Rams struck for their second eight-run tally of the tournament against the Scorpions and took a 9-1 lead which seemed solid at the time.

UTB/TSC chipped away with two runs in the fifth to make it 9-3 and four in the sixth to make it 9-7. Matt Ginn hit a bomb about 50 feet over the left-field fence for a three-run homer that cut the deficit to two runs.

But TWU matched the Scorpions with four runs of its own in the bottom of the sixth inning to make it a 13-7 lead and cruised from there.

Camorlinga had four hits in the game, and Ginn had three with four RBI. Mike Garcia also had three hits. Camorlinga, Peter Maldonado, Ginn and Garcia each scored twice.

There were several tournament highlights.

Jorge Camorlinga went 18-for-30 (.600) with two homers, two triples, scored 11 runs and drove in 12 to raise his batting average to .418. Matt Warner went 10-for-25 with three homers, scored eight runs and drove in eight. He now owns the team hitting streak record at 18 and counting.

Peter Maldonado had five doubles and Matt Ginn smacked two homers to raise his team-record total to 11.

UTB/TSC was riding high after a Tuesday with victories over Bacone College (10-5) that qualified the Scorpions for nationals, and over TWU (8-4) that set up a deciding tournament game Wednesday.

Wednesday's game was the sixth for the Scorpions in five tournament days, while the Rams were playing in their fifth game. Usually, pitching staffs are depleted this deep into a tournament, although both teams got gutsy performances from their pitchers. Each team used four moundsmen.

The Scorpions came to the tournament short-handed with four players staying home with illnesses, including starting pitcher Danny Gidora.

"We came up with 20 guys here down our number one pitcher, a bullpen arm, and two infielders," Aughney said. "I give these guys a ton of credit. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We showed how we capable of playing offensively. I'm excited about this year and the future moving forward. I know teams don't take us lightly. If you're playing us, you're going to get a battle."

Aughney will give the players some time off for final exams before preparing for the NAIA tournament hopefully with everyone healthy.

"The good news is that our season is not over,." Aughney said. "We have to get over this and move on. We still have some bigger fish to fry."