Marietta celebrated a 21st consecutive victory and will play for its fifth Division III baseball national championship. Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com

By Jim Dixon
D3sports.com

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- Marietta won its 21st straight game and secured a spot in the Championship game on Tuesday with a 4-1 win over Buena Vista in the 2011 Division III Baseball Championship.

Marietta will play Keystone at 3:30 pm CT on Monday. If Marietta wins, it will need to win one of two on Tuesday. If the Pioneers lose, they will advance to the championship game and play the remaining team with one loss.

D3baseball.com second-team All-America pitcher Mark Williams kept the Beavers off balance all game. Williams struck out 10 Beavers in seven innings, allowing a single run on seven hits, as he won his eighth game of the season.

"I felt good enough to come out and give our team a chance to get a W," said Williams. "I just tried to do what I can do and get seven or eight strong innings."

Marietta has now outscored their opponents 22-5 but have only scored only 5 runs in the first five innings of their games.

"We are patient," said Marietta coach Brian Brewer. "when you face good arms you will start slowly. I don't care when we get the runs as long as we get more than the other guys."

Marietta opened the scoring with a run in the second. Casey Levens singled to center and moved to third on a Braden Park single. Bryan Gregorich punched the ball through the right side of the infield.

The Pioneers scored three more in the sixth. Aaron Hopper was hit by Reggie Kock and moved to second on a wild pitch. Levens moved Hopper 90 feet away sixth a sacrifice bunt and Hopper scored on the second wild pitch of the inning. Braden Park reached on an error by the Beavers' third baseman. Gregorich's ground ball was thrown away by the pitcher allowing Gregorich to reach first and Park to move to third. Alex Toth's sacrifice scored Park and Gregorich moved to second. Jordan Grillot's single up the middle plated Gregorich.

Buena Vista got on the board in the seventh. Andy Compton and Dylan Colo had back-to-back singles sandwiched between two strikeouts. Brad Blum's two-out single scored Compton, spoiling the shutout for Marietta. But even though Blum and Colo moved up to second and third on a wild pitch, the Beavers couldn't push another run across, as Williams capped his outing with his 10th strikeout, getting Brock Yossi swinging.

Marietta got the run back in the bottom of the eighth. Levens singled, taking second on a sacrifice hit. When Levens advanced on a caught fly, an error by the first baseman on the throw to third allowed Levens to score the final run of the game.

Logan Lewis pitched the final two innings for Marietta. Lewis faced the minimum as he earned his first save of the year. Reggie Kock took the loss. He allowed four runs, two earned, on four hits and four walks in 5.2 innings  Kock struck out four batters. Kyle Dupic pitched the final 2.1 innings.

Levens led the Pioneers with two hits, and two runs scored. Blum and Compton each had two hits for the Beavers.