Alvernia turns 3

Howie Smith improved to 9-3 with seven strong innings. Earlham athletics photo

Regional previews

Oswego State and Mass-Boston advanced in walkoff fashion, Wartburg threw a combined no-hitter, Earlham won an NCAA tournament game for the first time in any sport, Roanoke continued its hot streak at the hands of Salisbury, Alvernia and Cal Lutheran turned triple plays, and there was an inside-the-park grand slam to boot on the first day of the 2017 Division III baseball regionals.

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Max Langheinrich went the first six and two-thirds innings, striking out nine, before yielding to Austin Bohling to finish the no-hitter for Wartburg in a 3-0 win vs. Webster. Webster ace Josh Fleming, who entered the game with an 0.53 ERA, started the game with seven and a third scoreless innings before Wartburg scratched out three runs in the eighth, one of them unearned. Langheinrich walked four and hit four batters, striking out nine, while Bohling walked two and got the win in relief to improve to 5-1.

Wes Randall had four hits for New York Regional top seed Oswego State, the last one the game-winner as the Lakers rallied past Ithaca 11-10 in the regional opener in Syracuse, N.Y. Randall's two-run single capped a four-run bottom of the ninth. Andrew Bailey, who was already the second pitcher of the ninth for the Bombers, gave up a one-out walk to Zach Kollar, then walked pinch-hitter Josh Hoagland as well with the bases loaded to cut the Ithaca lead to 10-8. Tom Cosentino relieved and threw a wild pitch to score a run, then Logan Barer came on to face Randall, whose single scored Kollar and Hoagland to win the game.

Roanoke, which was the sixth seed in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference before winning it all, entered the South Regional as the sixth seed of six as well and started off in grand fashion. The Maroons scored five in the third and six in the sixth to chase Salisbury starter Pete Grasso and rolled over the top-seeded Sea Gulls 15-5. Collier Donald, Will Decker and Sam Watson each had three RBI for Roanoke, which won its fifth game in a row to improve to 30-16.

Alvernia scored twice in the top of the first in the opener of the Mid-Atlantic Regional, then impressively snuffed out an RIT rally. Alvernia third baseman Dillon Dunne snagged a liner off the bat of Daniel Zeglen, stepped on third for the second out and threw across to Matt Briner ahead of the diving Brett Kajganich for a triple play. Alvernia went on to win 8-4, snapping RIT's 12-game run.

The No. 1 team in the nation had no problems in their regional opener, taking down Otterbein 7-1. Ryan Broaderick came within one batter of a complete game as he scattered six hits en route to his nine win. Jonathan Fleckenstein came in with two outs in the ninth inning the retire the final batter.

Bill Munson's bases-loaded double helped lift Rhodes to a five-run seventh inning as the Lynx became the second No. 6 seed to defeat a No. 1 on the afternoon, defeating West Regional host UT-Tyler by a 7-2 score. Alex Garrett got the win with three and two-thirds innings of shutout relief. 

Greenville put a bit of a scare into Birmingham-Southern, matching the Panthers' four-run first with four unearned runs in the second, but it was the Central top seed that kept it going, adding three in the fourth, two in the sixth and five in the seventh thanks to a grand slam by Tyler Wise in a 14-6 win. The other Central game was a low scoring affair with the winner needing only three runs to win. North Central (Ill.) were 3-1 winners over Washington University.

Babson got the action started on Thursday morning at the New England Regional in Harwich, Mass., as the Beavers won a game in the regional for the second time in program history and first since 2009, defeating Salve Regina 14-3. Teddy Carey got the win with seven solid innings, while the Beaver bats broke it open with a six-spot in the sixth inning. capped by a two-run triple for Brian McHale off of Salve reliever Kyle Lefelar. McHale went 4-for-5 with four RBI on the morning. Babson, which has now won 13 consecutive games, had gone two-and-out in its previous trips. 

Adrian and St. Thomas did all their scoring in the eighth inning. Unfortunately for the Tommies, the Bulldogs won the inning 5-2. Junior pinch-hitter Brian Guck laced an opposite field triple to the right-field corner that cleared the bases for the big hit to help Adrian earn a 5-2 come-from-behind win over St. Thomas.

Penn State-Berks made a bid to knock off a top seed as well, as the Nittany Lions scored three in the ninth to send the game into extra innings. Mass-Boston's Nick Herzog singled home pinch-runner Eddie Riley to send the Beacons into a winners bracket game with Babson, winning 9-8 in ten innings.

Southern Maine has the easiest game in the Syracuse Regonal among the top seeds. Freshman Andrew Olszak’s two-run single in the sixth inning snapped a 2-2 tie and th Huskies went on to defeat the Castleton Spartans 5-3.

W&J put up a big crooked number in the latter innings as well, scoring five in the seventh to secure a 12-7 win vs. Misericordia. No. 8 hitter Kevin Begley went 4-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and Nick Gatins was 3-for-4 with four RBI in the win on a day in which Misericordia knocked W&J ace Riley Groves around a bit, touching him up for nine hits and five runs, three earned, in five and two-thirds innings. The Presidents will face Earlham on Friday, as the Quakers won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time in school history in any sport, taking down Wooster 6-2. 

Shenandoah, TCNJ and Concordia-Chicago were sent out of their region despite winning the regular season champonship on the ODAC and NJAC. Shenandoah's closer, Tyler Holt, loaded the bases in the ninth inning with no outs but preserved the two run lead the Hornets had entering the inning as Shenandoah defeated SUNY Maritime 5-3. TCNJ found themselves one run down to Tufts in their final inning and had their own bases loaded situation but unlike SUNY  Maritime, the Lons plated two for the 4-3 walk off win over Tufts. Concordia-Chicago had no trouble with its opponent as the Cougars cruised to an 8-3 win over Macalester.

With every teams' top pitcher available to pitch, the scores were surprisingly high. Johns Hopkins put 15 on the board in a 15-2 win over Lesley and Centenary (La.) hung 12 on Linfield, sending the Wildcats into the elimination round with a 12-1 loss. Rowan and Emory played a close game until the eighth inning when the Profs sent 12 players to the plate for a six run inning and a 10-2 win. The highlight of the inning was a inside-the-park grand slam by Monny Strickland.

Cal Lutheran scored five runs over the first two innings and rolled to a 6-3 win over Concordia (Texas), sealing the win with a line-drive triple play as the Tornados had the tying run at the plate in the ninth. All but one starter recorded a hit with Jimmy Jauregui accumulating three hits in his three at-bats. The top of the order accounted for nine of the 13 Kingsmen safeties. 

UW-Whitewater scored three in the bottom of the first and added an insurance run in the fifth as the top-seeded Warhawks defeated St. Norbert 4-2 in the Midwest Regional. Whitewater got run-scoring doubles by junior first baseman Blake Fleischman and senior second baseman Steve Chamberlain and a sacrifice fly by sophomore left fielder Matt Wary to take the lead. Heath Renz and Westin Wuethrich went four innings apiece and Mike Nompleggi went the ninth for his seventh save. The Warhawks will face their conference foe right away in the winners' bracket, as UW-La Crosse broke a tight game open with a six-run sixth inning to chase Grant Rindal as the Eagles defeated St. Scholastica 11-2. Caleb Boushley improved to 9-2, allowing just three hits, a walk and a hit batsman over eight innings. Joel Zyhowski went 2-for-5 with three RBI for UW-La Crosse, which rapped out 15 hits, 14 of them singles.

Wheaton (Mass.) survived a ninth inning rally by Elizabethtown, holding on to an 8-6 win over the Blue Jays. Eight of Wheaton's 14 hits went for extra bases. Zach Goodwin-Boyd homered, doubled twice, scored twice and drove in a pair -- both on his sixth-inning home run.

In a rematch of a pair of games played at the 2016 NCAA Division III World Series in Appleton, Wisconsin, both won by Keystone, 6-1 and 5-4 (10 innings), Keystone was victorious again over La Roche. This time, the Giants were 5-2 winners. The Giants will face DePauw. Cortland looked to have their game with DePauw under control only to see the wheels come off in the 8th and 9th innings as Cortland fell to DePauw 8-5.

Arcadia closed the action on the day as Mike Boulanger's walk-off hit plated Jordan Draude with the game-winning run in the 12th to beat Worcester State 4-3.