| Spencer Ansett recorded three strikeouts and two walks on the mound as the Pirates advance to the NWC title game. Whitworth athletics photo |
Spencer Ansett followed Dan Scheibe's no-hit performance on Friday with seven strong innings and Joshua Davis hit a two-run home run as Whitworth advanced to the championship of the inaugural Northwest Conference Tournament with a 4-1 win over host Pacific Lutheran at PLU Field. Linfield, a 3-0 winner over George Fox, faced Pacific Lutheran in the final game of the day, falling 7-6 as the Lutes walked off to a rematch with Whitworth on Sunday.
Third seed and host Suffolk is in the driver's seat entering Sunday's final day of competition at the 2015 GNAC Tournament, as the Rams defeated top-seeded Saint Joseph's (Maine), 3-2, at Holman Stadium in Nashua, N.H. to remain unbeaten in the tournament. Johnson & Wales, which suffered its first loss of the double-elimination portion of the tourney agaisnt Suffolk, earned a 7-1 win in the first of three games to eliminate fourth-seeded Lasell. The Wildcats followed up by beating defending GNAC champion Saint Joseph's (Maine), 4-2, to stay alive and earn the right to play on Sunday. Johnson & Wales will need to win twice Sunday over host Suffolk to capture the GNAC Championship, while the Rams can wrap up the conference crown with a victory at Holman.
Fifth-seeded Berry Vikings upset top-seeded No. 6 Birmingham-Southern in the first game, 3-2, before the Panthers rallied to defeat Oglethorpe, 11-3, in the nightcap on day two of the 2015 SAA Championship. Berry and BSC will face off again tomorrow with the Panthers needing to defeat the Vikings twice to clinch a berth to the SAA title series against the winner of the Millsaps-Rhodes winner.
WPI rallied in the 12th inning to defeat Wheaton (Mass.), 3-2, in the first game of a NEWMAC Tournament semifinal doubleheader at Rocheleau Field. The Engineers ended up with a split, as the Lyons pulled away to beat the hosts, 12-3, in the nightcap. This sets up a decisive third game of the series, which will take place Sunday at Assumption College. The winner will face MIT in the NEWMAC Tournament championship. MIT defeated Coast Guard 4-1, 5-2 to sweep into the tile series.
For the first time in the Landmark Conference's eight-year history, Scranton will be the top seed in the postseason. The Royals secured the top spot by sweeping a doubleheader against Drew, 7-5 and 8-4, at Connell Park on Senior Day. Scranton will host a best-of-three semifinal series against the no. 4 seed, which has not been determined this weekend at Connell Park.
Coming into Saturday's twin bill versus Hamline, Bethel needed just one win to secure their first-ever MIAC Championship and despite tons of drama, the Royals were able to top the Pipers in game one and secure the 2015 MIAC crown. Grant Anderson took a 2-2 pitch deep to centerfield, which scored the game-winning run in an 11-10 triumph. For Anderson, it was his third walkoff hit of the season and for Bethel it was their most dramatic comeback in program history. Bethel fell in game two by a final of 13-8.
Kevin Kwedor and Alex Rozak provided quality starts on the mound as Mass-Maritime captured a share of the MASCAC season championship for the first time in 33 years by sweeping a league doubleheader from Westfield State by scores of 4-2 in the opener and 7-3 in the nightcap in games played at Hagan Field. The visiting Buccaneers have won seven straight contests.
Tufts earned its seventh NESCAC East Division pennant with a doubleheader sweep of Bates at Huskins Field. The Jumbos won game one 5-0 and took the nightcap 19-4.
Endicott split their final CCC doubleheader of the regular season and in the process solidified their position atop the conference with a 12-4 league record. The Gulls will be the top seed in next week's CCC Tournament for the second straight season after their 3-0 game one win over Roger Williams clinched their playoff standing. In nightcap, the Hawks junior pitcher Troy DeLeon hurled seven scoreless innings, allowed just one hit and two walks, and struck out 10 batters as Roger Williams took game two, 5-0, to salvage a split with Endicott.
Rutgers-Camden used a shutout in game one and a nail-biter in extra innings in game two to sweep Kean by the finals of 7-0 and 3-2. With the sweep Camden takes the regular season NJAC title with a 14-4 conference mark. With the loss Kean falls into a three-way tie for second place with Rowan and Ramapo. By virtue of Kean's record among the tied teams, the Cougars take the second seed, with Ramapo finishing third and Rowan fourth. Montclair State takes the fifth seed with 10-8 record and The College of New Jersey rounds out the field with a 9-9 record after splitting with William Paterson.
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Tony Genus went 6-for-8 in two games on Saturday at Centenary.
Texas Lutheran athletics photo |
Texas Lutheran saw its 10-game SCAC winning streak snapped, and ended up dropping a pair of games on the road against Centenary. TLU dropped the first game 5-4 and the second one 2-0. The two losses means Centenary will host next weekend's SCAC Championships, as the Bulldogs needed to win at least two of the three games to earn that right.
Adrian split a pair of games against second place Kalamazoo to remain three games ahead of the Hornets in the MIAA standings. The first game saw a milestone reached as senior pitcher Eric Schmidt picked up his 28th career win establishing a new record at Adrian. Schmidt and the Bulldogs won 5-3 in a game that shifted monumentally on an error in the bottom of the fifth inning. Kalamazoo won 3-0 in the nightcap.
Pitching ruled the day as Marietta and John Carroll split an OAC doubleheader. The Pioneers took game one, 5-0, while John Carroll avoided the sweep with a 2-1 win in the nightcap. Christian Herstine scattered eight John Carroll hits en route to the complete-game shutout. The Pioneer ace struck out eight and walked only one over 9.0 innings. Drew Doring tied a program record with his ninth winas he fired a three-hit complete game with eight strikeouts to help John Carroll split with Marietta.
Chris Collins led off the Hamilton eighth with his career-best fourth hit, then stole second and wound up on third when Williams' catcher threw the ball away. Two batters later a groundball off the bat of Tyler Reinhold brought Chris Collins in with the go-ahead run as Hamilton won 3-2 over Williams. J. Jay Lane went eight innings to earn his first win of the season. He matched a career high with six strikeouts.
Thiel recorded a Presidents' Athletic Conference doubleheader sweep on the road over the Bethany Bison. Kevin Forester shut down the Bison offense as Thiel defeated Bethany 5-0 in the first game. Forrester threw a complete game four-hit shutout, striking out six along the way and facing only three more batters than the minimum to pick up his fifth win of the season. The long ball powered Thiel in a 12-6 win over Bethany in the second game of the doubleheader.
Heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, the Gators trailed Kenyon 5-4. Allegheny rallied behind clutch hitting by their corps of seniors, as Zach Gray crushed a walk-off home run to center field to cap the Gators' second rally of the afternoon, vaulting Allegheny to a 6-5, eight-inning win over Kenyon to wrap up the Saturday sweep at Robertson Complex.
St. Mary's (Minn.) took two games from Carleton dropping the Knights from third place into a tie for sixth place with one week remaining in the regular season. The Cardinals erupted for 11 first-inning runs and never looked back in cruising to a 17-3 win over Carleton in game one of the teams' MIAC doubleheader at Mel Taub Field. Saint Mary's did not miss a beat in the nightcap, adding another 13 runs—while surrendering just three for the second consecutive game—in completing the sweep with a 13-3 victory that was shortened to seven innings by the 10-run rule.
Senior tri-captain RHP Sean Meekins and junior LHP Jed Robinson combined to allow six hits and two runs over 13 innings with 13 strikeouts, leading the Trinity Bantams to a 4-8 and 8-0 doubleheader sweep the visiting Middlebury College Panthers.
Alvernia split a doubleheader with Arcadia in Commonwealth Conference action at Angelica Park. The Crusaders won the opener, 7-1, behind Matt Backlund, and dropped game two, 7-5, with the Knights plating the go-ahead runs in the top of the seventh. Alvernia heads to the postseason as the top seed in the Commonwealth Championships and will face #4 Widener in the opening round at Santander Stadium in York. Messiah will face Stevenson in the 2/3 game. Strevenson earned a spot in the tounament with a 7-5, 5-3 sweep of Albright.
Rose-Hulman relied on a strong pitching effort to sweep Bluffton 3-2 and 7-0 to move into first place in the HCAC standings, The Fightin' Engineers hold a narrow lead over Anderson, Manchester, Bluffton and Earlham entering Sunday's league matchups. In the opener, junior Karson Nixon recorded one of the best starts of his career with nine strong innings as Rose-Hulman earned an 11-inning, 3-2 victory. Nixon allowed just three hits and one earned run with a career-high 12 strikeouts. Junior Alec McNally came out of the bullpen with two scoreless innings and one strikeout to improve to 3-1 on the season and pick up the victory in game two.
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Matthew Michalski scored six times and drove in five runs in the opener; he's the first Cortland player to score six runs in a game since at least 1998. |
Cortland scored 25 runs on 27 hits in the nine-inning opener and Alex Weingarten threw a two-hit shutout in the seven-inning nightcap as the nationally top-ranked Red Dragons swept host Plattsburgh, 25-8 and 6-0, in a SUNYAC doubleheader. Cortland has won 30 or more games each of the last 11 years and 21 times over a 22-year span. The Red Dragons have already secured the league's regular-season title and will host the four-team SUNYAC tournament. The tournament seeds were finalized with Brockport and Fredonia securing the third and fourth seeds, respectively. Cortland will face Fredonia and Oswego will play Brockport.
Junior John Arens recorded five hits while senior Thomas Fitzpatrick and freshman David Griffin picked up complete-game victories as Curry swept a CCC doubleheader from Wentworth, taking the first game 13-1 and the nightcap, 4-3.
Rochester and Clarkson split a pair of one run games in a Liberty League conference doubleheader at Towers Field. Rochester won game one by a 2-1 score in eight innings, earning head coach Joe Reina his 300th career win at Rochester while Clarkson would snag game two by a 6-5 score.
Hiram scored a 9-7 road non-conference win at Mount Union. Freshman Phillip Ward paced the Terriers offense, going 3-for-5 with two RBI's. Senior Jaren Bell, senior Ron DeAmicis and sophomore Eric Martin each added two hits.
The Baruch Bearcats and Lightning of Lehman split a CUNYAC doubleheader in the Bronx, New York. In the first game, the Bearcats fell behind 5-0 in the first inning and could not recover in an 8-5 loss. In the second game, the Bearcats bounced back and avoided a big comeback by Lehman for a 14-13 win in eight innings. The game started as if it would be a rout with the Bearcats leading at one point, 10-1.
After a close game one, UMass-Boston would pound out 11 runs on 15 hits to earn a Little East Conference sweep over Plymouth State at Campanelli Stadium. The sweep marked the second time in the last three years that the Beacons recorded the back-to-back victories over their longtime conference rivals.