Jordan Grilliot tracks down a Devon Quaglietta fly ball in left field, helping squelch a scoring threat. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. – After starting as a pitching duel, Friday’s game between Salisbury and No. 1 Marietta turned into a buzzsaw as the Pioneers rolled to an 8-0 win in the opening round of the Division III baseball championships.

D3baseball.com Pitcher of the Year Brian Gasser (14-0) threw six shutout innings and Mark Williams and Kyle Lindquist finished it up as Marietta improved to 43-3.

Salisbury starter Chris Greiner (10-4) went toe-to-toe with Gasser through the first five innings before Marietta touched him up for three in the sixth.

With one out and John Snyder on first, Adam Hopper hit a single to left-center. First baseman Casey Levens singled to left and Devon Quaglietta airmailed the throw over the cutoff man, allowing Levens and Hooper to each move up a base as Snyder came across with the game’s first run. The Sea Gulls pulled the infield in, allowing Evan Brockmeier to chop a ball over the second baseman and bring home Hopper and Levens.

“If we hit the cutoff man, let’s hold them at first and second,” said Salisbury coach Doug Fleetwood. “Now if we get the ground ball, I don’t know that we get two out of that chopper anyhow, but you get one and you get something to play with. Maybe you walk a guy and you set the double play up again.

“We put ourself in that situation because we missed the cutoff.”

“That was big, but wheels typically don’t come off on teams in the world series,” said Marietta coach Brian Brewer. “These guys are all regional champions, especially that club, I think they won five or six in a row to come back and get here.

“Obviously they airmailed the ball but I think it was Brockmeier, Evan, who came in to actually pinch run and ended up in that DH spot, and he did it later in the game too: situational hitting. We made them pay for a mistake and I think that’s what good teams do.”

Marietta loaded the bases again in the sixth but Greiner got Kirby Becker on a grounder to second to end the inning.

From there, Gasser took a seat, putting Marietta in position to bring him back on short rest later in the tournament, and the wheels fell off for the Sea Gulls, as Marietta scored three more times in the seventh and twice in the eighth to put the game out of reach.

Brian Gasser didn't have his best stuff, he said, but it was more than enough to beat Salisbury. Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com

Gasser allowed just three hits and walked three in his six innings despite having what he and Brewer said was not his best stuff. “The last few outings I’ve had a little bit of issues mechanically. I think as the game’s gone on I was able to figure out a little bit more what I was doing wrong, been able to correct and been able to do better later on in the game.”

Gasser pitched on short rest in the regional and could be brought back on short rest again, although Austin Blaski is expected to get the call on Saturday against Chapman, with Mark Williams available to start on Sunday despite throwing two innings of relief today. Gasser lowered his ERA to 1.02.

Brockmeier finished 2-for-3 with four RBI despite enering the game in the fifth inning as a pinch-runner. Levens knocked in three runs, two in the sixth and one on a sac fly in the eighth.

Brian Green opened the Salisbury half of the fourth inning with a double into the left-field corner. He advanced to third on a fly ball by Quaglietta but was stranded. In the sixth, Green reached on a one-out single and went to third on Tyler Bennett’s base hit to center, but Marietta shortstop Tim Saunders cut the throw off and threw behind the runner, gunning down Bennett trying to stretch it into a double, ending the inning.

“We gotta do a little better job than that and think about it, because obviously at that point it looks like a low-scoring situation,” said Fleetwood. “We’re going to have to be better at it tomorrow than we were today.”

Salisbury plays Kean in an elimination game at 10 a.m. CDT on Saturday. Marietta advances to play Chapman in a winners bracket game which is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m.