Appleton, Wis. – Keystone College's baseball team rallied for a dramatic, 5-4 walk-off win in 10 innings over La Roche College on Monday evening to punch its ticket to the best-of-three, national championship series of the NCAA Division III College World Series at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.  The Giants (40-9) claimed the Pool B title with their 13^th consecutive win while reaching the 40-win plateau for just the fourth time in program history and for the first time since 2009 while becoming the first team from Pennsylvania to reach the national championship game.
 
Keystone has now won 17 of its last 18 contests and is a perfect, 10-0 in postseason play.  The Giants are seeking their first national championship in program history and the first NCAA Division III national title for any Keystone athletic program.  The men's golf team claimed the school's only other national championship in 2004 by winning the NJCAA crown at the junior college level.      
 
Keystone will be making its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division III championship series and will take on Trinity (Texas) University in the best-of-three series.  The Tigers (42-7) advanced the final round with a 5-2 victory over defending national champion Cortland earlier on Monday.  Trinity, the NCAA West Regional champions, is a perfect 10-0 in postseason play this spring including a 3-0 mark in the World Series.
 
La Roche (43-12), who stayed alive with a 9-6 victory over St. John Fisher earlier on Monday after falling to Keystone 6-1 on Sunday, took a 1-0 lead on Monday when Ben Herstine led off the top of the second inning with a home run to left field.  The score stayed that way until the bottom of the fourth inning, when Chris Triano (Greenwich, CT/Rye) was hit by a pitch and moved to third on a double by Nate Ross (Albuquerque, NM/La Cueva).  Keystone starting pitcher Billy Nelson (Moscow, PA/North Pocono) then helped his own caused by bringing home Triano with a single to left field, knotting the game at one-apiece.
 
The Redhawks regained the lead, 2-1, in their next at-bats as Tyler Craig singled up the middle to bring home Ian Velez.  The Giants had a great chance to tie the game back up in the home seventh. Robbie Nardelli (Eynon, PA/Valley View) led off the frame with a double to right-center and moved to third when Alex Herceg (Jackson, NJ/Jackson Memorial) reached on an error to give Keystone runners at the corners with nobody out, but La Roche starter Nick Tunstall retired the next three batters in order to escape the jam.
 
The Redhawks carried the momentum into the top of the eighth inning and extended their lead to 4-1 on a two-out, two-run home run to centerfield off the bat of David Lemley.  The Giants countered with a pair of two-out, unearned runs in the bottom of the eighth as Nardelli singled up the middle to bring home Nelson and Austin Chaszar (Bordentown, NJ/Bordentown Regional), cutting Keystone's deficit to 4-3.
 
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Louis Reyes (Port St. Lucie, FL/Treasure Coast) was hit by a pitch with one out, and following a fly out, Triano was plunked to put runners on first and second.  Down to their last strike, Ross ripped a hard shot to third base that ate up the Redhawks' third baseman and Reyes raced around to score the tying run from second base, sending the game to extra-innings tied at 4-4.
 
Chaszar led off the home 10^th with a single through the left side and was pinch run for by Tony Hunter II (Atlanta, GA/South Effingham).  Nardelli then laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Hunter to second base before La Roche's Brady Hamer got a fly ball out for the second out of the inning.  Randy Torres (Bronx, NY/All Hallows) then stepped up as a pinch hitter and struck out on an off speed pitch in the dirt.  Torres raced for first with the ball still live and reached on an errant throw by the Redhawks' catcher to keep the inning going.
 
Reyes then stepped up to the plate and hit a hard chopper down the third base line that was fielded cleanly by La Roche's third baseman, who then threw well over the first baseman's head allowing Reyes to reach safely and Hunter to come home with the game-winning run, sending Keystone into the national championship series. 
 
Nelson went eight innings on the mound, taking a no-decision after allowing four runs on seven hits while striking out five batters.  Danny O'Neill (Lake Hiawatha, NJ/St. Mary's Rutherford) pitched a scoreless ninth inning with one hit and one walk against before giving way to Yeison Andujar (Carolina, PR/Programa Educativo Alcance) in the 10^th inning.  Andujar (3-2) was credited with the win after working around a walk and picking up one strikeout in Keystone's final defensive inning.
 
Nelson and Nardelli collected two hits apiece to lead Keystone's offense with Nardelli driving in a pair of runs.
 
Tunstall allowed one run on five hits in the first seven innings for La Roche before turning the ball over to Shane Emrich, who yielded three unearned runs on two hits in two innings of work.  Brady Hamer (6-1) was charged with his first loss of the spring after surrendering the unearned winning run on one hit to go along with one K while record two outs in the bottom of the 10^th inning.
 
Velez went 3-4 while Lemley went 2-4 with a pair of RBI to lead La Roche's offense in defeat.
 
Both teams collected eight hits on the day, but it was five errors by the Redhawks that made the difference for the Giants, who scored just one earned run in the victory.
 
Game 1 of Keystone's best-of-three series is scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m., CST (12:00 p.m., EST) on Tuesday with the second game to follow approximately 40 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.  An if necessary third game is set for Wednesday at 11:00 a.m., CST, in Appleton, Wisconsin.