NEW LONDON, Conn. — Sophomore left fielder Kevin Matos (Lawrence, Mass.) homered in the bottom of the sixth to give the No. 8/9 and top-seeded Wheaton College (Mass.) baseball team the lead for good in a 5-3 victory over third-seeded and host Mitchell College this afternoon at Alumni Field in New London, Conn.
The Lyons, who are ranked eighth in the most recent D3baseball.com national poll and ninth in the Collegiate Baseball/American Baseball Coaches Association survey, win the NCAA Regional round crown for the fifth time in school history and improve to 41-7 on the season to match the 2012 team (41-11) for the second-highest win total in school history. The Mariners, who are ranked 27th in the most recent Collegiate Baseball/American Baseball Coaches Association poll, conclude their season with a 33-10 mark.
Wheaton will take on No. 1 Johns Hopkins University, which won three straight games to take the regional it hosted in Baltimore, Md. after wins over Pennsylvania State Altoona, No. 20 Randolph-Macon College and Saint John Fisher University.
Both teams scored single runs in the first inning, before the Lyons scored twice in the bottom of the third, only to be matched by two Mitchell runs in the fourth to tie the game at 3-3. Wheaton took a 4-3 edge with a run in the sixth and added an insurance run in the seventh.
Matos was 2-4 with two runs batted in and a run scored for the Lyons, while senior third baseman Nick Croteau (Cumberland, R.I.) was 1-3 with a double, an RBI and a run scored. Senior shortstop Cavan Brady (Sheffield, Mass.) was 1-3 and also knocked in a run. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Ryan McCarroll (Clifton Park, N.Y.) made his first relief appearance of the season and pitched two and a third innings of no-hit, no-run ball, while issuing a pair of walks and striking out a batter to gain the win and improve to 10-1 on the season. He ties Frank Holbrook's all-time single-season school mark for wins in a season, set in 2012, and also logged his 77th strikeout of the year to give him the school strikeout mark by himself after tying the standard on Friday. Senior lefty reliever Zach Nichols (Chicopee, Mass.) struck out the side in the ninth for the seventh time this season to earn his team-leading seventh save.
Junior right fielder Owen Robbins (East Lyme, Conn.) led the Mariners' lineup, going 1-3 with a home run, two RBI, a run scored and a walk, while junior shortstop Angel Galindez (Carolina, P.R.) and senior third baseman Lelo Martinez (New London, Conn.) each singled and scored a run. Senior right-handed reliever Tyler Daly (Wallingford, Conn.) was saddled with the loss to dip to 5-1 after yielding two runs on five hits and a walk in four and a third innings pitched.
Matos gave the Lyons a 4-3 edge in the bottom of the sixth when he crushed a 2-2 pitch well over the right field fence for his team-leading 12th homer of the season.
Wheaton tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh to take a 5-3 lead. Junior center fielder AJ Guindon (Coventry, R.I.) beat out an infield single to deep shortstop, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and took third on a fly out to right field. Brady came through with a single to center field to plate Guindon and give the Lyons a two-run lead.
Nichols struck out the side in the ninth to nail down the victory and send Wheaton to the Super Regional Round.
Mitchell manufactured a run in the top of the first to crack the scoring column first and take a 1-0 edge. Galindez beat out a bunt single to open the game, before senior left fielder Dougie DelaCruz (Uncasville, Conn.) ripped a single to center to put runners on the corners with one out. Senior catcher Matt Falk (Enfield, Conn.) hit a double-play ball to third, but the throw to first following the out at second was not in time and Galindez scored the first run of the game.
Wheaton matched the run in the bottom of the inning to pull even at 1-1. Senior second baseman Mike Maher (Jefferson, Mass.) stung a single to center field, before Brady was hit by a pitch to push Maher into scoring position with two outs. Matos delivered a run-scoring single to right field to plate Maher and tie the game at 1-1.
The Lyons added two more runs in the bottom of the third to take a 3-1 margin. Maher drew a one-out walk and was off on the pitch when Croteau put a jolt into a ball that landed in the left-center gap to bring Maher around to score all the way around from first base. Wheaton took advantage of back-to-back wild pitches with Croteau moving to third and then scoring to increase the Lyons' lead to two runs.
The Mariners scored a pair of runs in the top of the fourth to provide the game's second tie following their first home run of the tournament. Martinez kept Mitchell's inning alive with a two-out single to left before Robbins blasted his third home run of the season over the left field fence to knot the game at 3-3. The Mariners looked to add one more run when first year Thai-ler Sestokas (Danbury, Conn.) cranked a pitch to deep left field, but Matos raced back to the fence for Wheaton, leaped and snared the ball out of the air for the final out of the inning.
Mitchell threatened to take the lead in the top of the sixth when it loaded the bases with two outs with walks issued to Falk, Robbins and sophomore designated hitter Matthew Blackwell (Ansonia, Conn.), before McCarroll got a strikeout to end the inning for the Lyons.