By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Saturday’s elimination games at the Division III World Series are not always a battle of attrition, but they have been this year.

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Bases left loaded, dropped third strikes, multiple consecutive hit batters and more culminated in a long contest in Game 7 of the 2022 Division III World Series, which started late, ended later, and resulted in Trinity (Texas) defeating Baldwin Wallace 6-5.

Trinity (38-12) remains in the tournament and will play the loser of the LaGrange-Eastern Connecticut game, which was scheduled to start so late, it was after midnight in the teams’ home states.

“I mean, game one in the loser's bracket and it took everything we had to pull out a win and that's what losers bracket baseball is, especially that first one,” said Trinity coach Matt Scannell.

Harrison Durow came in to shut the door for Trinity. Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com

“The determination factor in the dugout was incredible. Those guys at no point thought they were going to lose the game.”

With his team down 5-4, Harrison Durow came on in relief and threw the final 3-2/3 innings of shutout ball, allowing just one hit. Meanwhile, Tyler Pettit blasted a ball well out of visual range in the sixth to tie the game and Trinity scrapped out a run in the seventh when Nathan Braulick scored on a wild pitch on a strikeout.

“The big story for us was Durow. He was incredible,” Scannell said.

“Everything really was working,” Pettit, the Tigers catcher, concurred. “I got to call a lot of pitches in a lot of counts that normally you wouldn't call because, it just kind of threw hitters off with a lot of breaking balls in fastball counts.”

Pettit’s big blast did just as much as his pitch-calling to get his team fired up. His homer was a no-doubter, one which flew far into the night.

“It’s a big momentum shift,” said Braulick. “Everyone was fired up. I mean, he's been, a leader for us all year and the fact that he steps in and does what he does, that's just a huge boost for us to, to be able to get the offense going again.”

For Baldwin Wallace, the story was missed opportunities, as the Yellow Jackets (37-13) left 13 runners on base, including the bases loaded in consecutive innings.

“It's a game of inches, right? Maybe a foul ball lands fair and then a rally goes,” said Baldwin Wallace coach Brian Harrison after the game. “I thought we hit some really hard balls at people early in the game. We had a lot of opportunities those first five innings and we just left I don't know how many guys who left on base, but felt like we left a lot of guys on base.”