Michael Mahaffery has not allowed a run in this nine innings pitched at the 2012 World Series. d3photography.com photo by Larry Radloff

By Dave Radcliffe for D3sports.com

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- Mike Mahaffey is Marietta’s No. 4 starter, but he pitched like an ace Wednesday afternoon against St. Thomas as the Pioneers advanced to the championship game with a 5-0 victory over the Tommies (41-10) in the 2012 Division III World Series at Fox Cities Stadium.

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Mahaffey threw eight scoreless innings in one of the gutsiest performances of the season, only allowing four hits and one walk while striking out seven. He allowed just two base runners and one base hit through the first seven innings. Pioneer reliever Kyle Lindquist combined with Mahaffey for the shutout, getting the final three outs of the game.

“Looking at that game, Mike [Mahaffey] threw really well,” St. Thomas coach Chris Olean said. “We were looking to get good at-bats and he was just down with his pitches. He was on the corners. He was tough. There wasn’t much we could do with him today.”

The Pioneers (47-8) tallied a run in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by freshman Mitch Geers to score Tim Saunders, and that was all Marietta would need. They added another in the third when Saunders was plated again on a base hit by Aaron Hopper. Both balls were ripped down the third base line just out of the reach of the St. Thomas third baseman Charles Bruchu.

Saunders was 4-for-4 in the game and started the next Marietta rally with an infield single to begin the eighth. He then advanced to third when Hopper singled to left, a pitch after Tommie sophomore starter Steve Maher was squeezed on a ball that appeared to catch the outside corner.

It proved to have an impact as Geers, who went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs, drove in Saunders on a perfectly executed hit-and-run. Hopper would then come across home on a balk call argued by Olean. After retiring the next two hitters, Maher allowed an RBI double to Jordan Grillot, and that would spell the end for Maher.

“He just said he didn’t pause,” Olean said when recounting the balk call. “He saw what he saw. My only thoughts were I wish the other umpires would’ve seen it too because they would have called it as well. That’s kind of what my point was to him. The big thing there is that the call didn’t make the game if we score zero runs.”

Maher had a fine day on the mound as well, doing enough to keep his squad in the game until the Pioneers blew the game open in the eighth. He gave up five earned runs on 12 hits while striking out six in 7.2 innings. Maher started to find his groove after struggling early. He struck out the side in the sixth, part of a string where four of five Pioneer hitters were victims of the punch out.

“I thought after the first couple innings, I was able to settle in more with my fastball and spot up a little more with that,” Maher said. “Once you start throwing that fastball over, you can get your slider, your curveball over, it makes it tough. That was working for me all the way up to the eighth inning.”

But it was Mahaffey’s day, a pitcher that came into the game with a 4.22 ERA. Mahaffey didn’t allow a base runner to go further than second until the ninth when he exited the game after allowing a leadoff hit, but Linquist stranded the bases loaded to end the game.

The Tommies managed to get their first two hitters on base in the eighth when Ben Podobinski reached on an infield single and Dan Reichert hit one between the first and second basemen. However, St. Thomas catcher J.D. Dorgan failed to get a sacrifice bunt down and struck out. Mahaffey then retired the next two hitters on a fly ball to left and a groundout to first to end the threat.

“You’ve got to be able to move runners there,” Olean said. “That would’ve been a real big deal, but that’s execution and the little stuff and in the playoff games, the little stuff does matter. I think it took some of the air out of us. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. We had our chances there and off a guy throwing that well, you don’t get too many opportunities to come back around.”

The first matchup between these two teams also featured a pitcher’s duel when they squared off in the second round of the winner’s bracket. St. Thomas’ Dylan Thomas went the distance and threw 149 pitches in a 3-1 victory over the Pioneers. Thomas, who was the designated hitter for the Tommies on Wednesday, had a disappointing showing, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.

No Tommie hitter had more than one hit on the game, but they bring back a lot of talent next season and will attempt to make a return trip to the Division III College World Series in 2013.

“I’ll take any experience I can get at the World Series,” Maher said. “We’ve got a lot of guys coming back so hopefully we’ll be gunning for coming back here. You can’t recreate pitching in a big game like this other than just going out there and actually doing it. I’ll take this experience, I’ll put it under my belt, and I’ll definitely remember this game moving forward.”