By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com
Cedar Rapids, Iowa - Luke Vonderhaar was celebrated on Thursday as the Elite 90 winner at the Division III baseball World Series, the student-athlete with the highest GPA at the event.
On Friday, Vonderhaar reminded everyone that his 3.986 GPA was far from his only significant contribution. The senior first baseman struck the first big blow for Baldwin Wallace, belting a no-doubter homer to left field and starting the ball rolling for the Yellow Jackets.
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Baldwin Wallace (37-10) put up runs in each of the first four innings, including a eight-spot in the fourth, as the Yellow Jackets advanced to the winners bracket at the 2023 Division III baseball World Series, defeating Endicott 13-9.
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| Luke Vonderhaar was a big part of a big day at the top of the order for Baldwin Wallace. Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com | More photos from this game |
The win snaps a four-game losing streak at the D-III World Series for Baldwin Wallace after a win to open the 2014 Series in Appleton.
Vonderhaar homered, and the next eight Yellow Jackets all reached, while six more of them scored, to put the game out of reach before Endicott (45-8) came to the plate in the bottom of the fourth.
"I felt good," said Vonderhaar. "I was up 2-0 in the count and my thing is always just swing hard. So I just decided to let one rip as hard as I can it caught it well, so, it was a good feeling."
Nick Clark and Alexis Castillo reached on a hit-by-pitch and a walk, respectively, to put runners on first and second with two out. Ryan Guggenheim followed by smashing a ball through the third baseman, and, after Endicott brought in reliever Jordan Gottesman, Andrew Parker came out and mashed a three-run homer to the same spot in left field.
"It was the first pitch off a pitching change," said Parker. "Kind of just expecting a first pitch fastball, kind of saw it out of his hands instantly, and then just hit the white ball over the white plate and did some damage."
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"Every hit adds the, to the guys' confidence and the next guy up gets a little bit more confident," Vonderhaar said. "The next guy up gets even more, a little confident. And when we're locked into our approach of hitting strikes hard, I think we're pretty dangerous, because up and down the lineup there's guys that can smoke the ball.
From there, Baldwin Wallace cruised. Garrett Miller lasted into the bottom of the eighth before Endicott pushed a couple of runs across, forcing Miller to yield to the bullpen to get the final five outs. Miller picked up his 10th win of the season against zero defeats. The Gulls scored three in the bottom of the ninth off Matt Sabin as a fly ball to right got out into the picnic porch. But Miller got through seven and a third innings to make sure the bullpen didn't get overused.
"His fastball's got life. He's got great fastball command. He's a three pitch guy," said Baldwin Wallace coach Brian Harrison. "In the fourth inning, he started to get a little bit of a blister, so he had to stop throwing the slider, which was unfortunate, trying to rely on his changeup. But his fastball command was excellent."
"When I had to ditch the slider, I had to focus in on just commanding the fastball a little bit better," Miller said. Early on in the game, I wasn't commanding the fastball or slider particularly well, so I just made that in-game adjustment."
Sean Kolenich and Vonderhaar finished with three hits apiece, while Parker had two hits and four runs batted in. The top third of the Baldwin Wallace order went a combined 8-for-16 with seven runs scored and four RBI.
The win snapped Endicott’s six-game winning streak, which started after the Gulls’ 4-2 loss at Bridgewater State in the first game of the regional on May 19.
Gabe Van Emon, a first team D3baseball.com All-America selection, got the start for Endicott and took the loss, falling to 10-2 on the season, and the Gulls followed him with a succession of five relievers, finishing with Evan Scully, who appeared in just his sixth game of the year. Van Emon gave up four runs, all earned, in two and two-thirds innings, while Chris Jenkins gave up five in just two-thirds of an inning and Gottesman got another two outs and gave up three more runs.
"He just wasn't sharp, honestly," Endicott coach Bryan Haley said of Van Emon, "and I think he'd be the first to say that he wasn't executing the pitches the way he knows he's capable. They do work at bats, they do lay off breaking balls in the dirt. He was missing arm side. He was getting his breaking ball down. And then when he did come in the zone, they did a good job of being on barrel."
Baldwin Wallace, the No. 5 seed, advances to play top seed Johns Hopkins on Saturday afternoon in the day's second game. Endicott, the No. 4 seed, faces No. 8 seeded Misericordia in an elimination game at 10 a.m. CT on Saturday.
"We know what to expect," Haley said. "We just gotta wake up and play good baseball.I don't think today was our best baseball, certainly, and I think we're capable of more, and I think we want to go prove that to everybody."