MARIETTA, Ohio — With 11 seniors on the roster, Misericordia coach Pete Egbert knew his Cougars had the ingredients for a great season.
On Saturday afternoon, and with six seniors in the starting lineup, the Cougars fulfilled that promise by defeating Marietta 6-2 in the NCAA Division III Super Regional at Don and Sue Schaly Field, and earning a spot in next week's World Series.
"It's really exciting for our program. The guys deserve a lot of credit," he said. "(They) competed their tails off all weekend long, and for the last few weeks I've been really pleased with our pitching performances. We got four pretty gutty performances this weekend out of our pitching staff, and they held a really good offensive team in check."
Tyler Leonard, one of the outstanding senior leaders, picked up his seventh win of the season after throwing six innings of relief.
"Ty is more comfortable coming out of the bullpen and we knew that coming into the season, but due to some pitching injuries and lack of depth we had to start him, so he's used to starting," Egbert said. "His pitch count has been extended to 90 to 100 pitches at least a handful of times this year. I felt comfortable with him going deeper in the game. We had plenty of bullpen left, but there was no way I was taking him off the mound there."
Leonard gave up nine hits, struck out four and threw 109 pitches. Four of those hits came in the ninth inning when the Pioneers (37-13) scored two runs.
"I was feeling good. My stuff was there," Leonard said. "My angle was to get ahead and when I get ahead I can use my best pitch, which is my cutter. Once I knew I could use that I knew I would do good against them."
Misericordia played near-perfect all game.
"Today was relatively a mistake-free game," Egbert said. "Our defense was outstanding and Tyler absolutely pounded the strike zone."
Marietta coach Brian Brewer agreed with Egbert's assessment.
"How well they played was super impressive," he said. "We got beat and they were certainly the better team this weekend. I don't think we applied a whole lot of pressure and I don't think it was due to the effort on our part. They were just really good, had a great game plan and they executed it."
Marietta threatened in the first inning as Misericordia's starter Max Oliver struggled to throw strikes. The Pioneers loaded the bases when Alex Richter walked, Brett Carson was hit by a pitch and Matthew Green walked — all with one out.
It looked like Marietta would score a run on Cole Rieman's flyball to center, but Richter slipped as he tried tagging up at third and Oliver got out of the inning unscathed.
"It was a little bit of a body blow, but ultimately it's not about one instance, one at bat or one inning," Brewer said. "It's more about the cumulative nine innings."
However, any early fan support and momentum escaped the Pioneers.
"That was huge. Max's MO is he works himself into and out of trouble all the time. That's kind of what he does," Egbert said. "Obviously he wasn't very sharp at the beginning, but to be able to get out of that first inning was huge and then I thought when Garrett (McIlhenney) came in and hit that lead-off triple that changes the momentum right there."
The Cougars (39-13) did respond and scored a run off Marietta starter Kail Hill, who took the loss and dropped to 10-4 on the season.
Following McIlhenney's lead-off triple, Derrick Vosburg had an RBI single. In the second inning, McIlhenney singled home Brendan Gray, who opened the inning with a hit. Jack Regenye, who also singled, scored when he stole home on a double steal.
While Marietta struggled to put much together offensively, Misericordia put pressure on the Pioneers in almost every inning as the Cougars pounded out 12 hits and left nine runners on base against three different pitchers.
"It seemed like we had action and activity on the bases every inning and then we put the pressure on, and tried to keep executing our offense," Egbert said. "To go back-to-back with Joe (Comins) and Connor (Maryniak) there in the fifth or sixth inning helped us out."
Leading 3-0 and with one out, Comins and Maryniak each belted 2-1 fastballs for solo home runs off Marietta reliver Gabe Torres.
"It was one of those pitches where you see it and your eyes light up," Comins said. "I knew a fastball was coming and I didn't miss it. We got the runs we needed and put the game away."
Comins went 3 for 4 and earned the Super Regional MVP, while McIlhenney went 3 for 3 and Maryniak added two hits.
Richter, Carson and Ty Davis each had two hits for the Pioneers.
Carson was one of four players, including Trent Valentine, Gino Sabatine and Matthew Busby, who suited up in the Marietta uniform for a final time.
"It's been awesome. I couldn't have asked for a better two years," said Carson, who transferred to Marietta. "All the guys tell me it feels like I've been here for all five of my years, and to me it has honestly felt like that these short two years."
Misericordia will travel to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and play in the NCAA Division III Baseball Championships starting on Friday.
"It's every team's goal to get to a World Series," Comins said. "We put in a lot of hard work in the offseason and it's definitely showing now."
Egbert is proud of his team's accomplishment.
"We kind of had to reset because we lost in our conference championship last year, so we reset and our main goal was to take back the conference this year and beat Arcadia," he said. "Unfortunately, they knocked us off again this year and we weren't playing well at the end of the season, and we flipped the switch. … We were fortunate enough to get an at-large bid and I think once that happened and once we were picked as a host for a regional our guys had a little bit of a boost of energy and a little bit more confidence and it's traveled for the last two weekends."