May 31, 2021

Tickets punched on busy Monday

Tristin Richardson's home run to center field in the 10th inning brought the Adrian squad onto the field for the dogpile as the Bulldogs walked off UW-Whitewater to win the Whitewater Regional on Memorial Day.
Photo by Brett Sasse, d3photography.com


Monday is the new Sunday. Sunday is typically the day in which we crown regional champions but only three tickets were earned. We will have an uncommonly busy Monday.

On Thursday, the day opened with pitchers taking control, keeping the day on schedule, but the afternoon turned stormy. On the fields where there was sunshine, the hits kept coming and any hope of staying on schedule evaporated. Out in Minnesota, two regionals did not have a chance to show what their teams had as Mother Nature rained on their parade.

Friday, it cleared for the St. Paul and Collegeville Regionals and they got in a full day's activity but the rain drifted east causing disruptions of the Marietta and Auburn Regionals. Both got in at least one game as the hosts try to stay on schedule. Only the High Point Regional has avoided the weather problems that delayed games.

Saturday we saw more teams head home as we reduced the number of teams from 48 to 24. Heading into Sunday, a third or more of those remaining teams will be looking for a ride home. No matter the outcomes this Sunday, we will still be playing Memorial Day baseball!

Sunday is the day that we find out who advances to the D-III World Series. Only Rowan, Salisbury and Washington are headed to Cedar Rapids. On Monday, the rest of the field will be known.

In the Hartford Regional Championship game, Wheaton (Mass.) scored two early runs and that was all they needed to earn a trip to Cedar Rapids next week in the D-III World Series. The Lyons defeated the Huskies 2-1. The opening game on Monday was a play-in to the Championship round. Wheaton (Mass.) took on Salve Regina and advanced to the regional title game with Southern Maine with a 7-4 win over the Sea Hawks. Josh Roberge was dealing early, taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning. His friends at the dish were helping him out, staking him to a 7-0 lead. Salve Regina finally got to Roberge with two in the fifth and two in the seventh and his day was done. Griffin Young  took over in the eighth and pitched two perfect innings for his first save of the year.

Cortland had the easiest game of the day as they scored in six of eight innings to defeat Tufts 13-2. With the victory, the Red Dragons will be making first trip to the World Series since 2016. Adrian joined Cortland in next weeks' World Series as they defeated UW-Whitewater in the tenth inning on a walkoff home run by Tristin Richardson, 8-7. The Bulldogs got a grand slam in the eighth to draw close and three in the ninth to tie the game at 7-7 before Richardson's drive ended the game.

In Collegeville, St. Thomas defeated the Pacific Boxers 7-4 and will switch sides and play again with the winner advancing to the D-III World Series. The Tommies had the early momentum as the Boxers scratched back into the game and led going into the final inning. A couple errors and the game unraveled for Pacific and St. Thomas won 13-9. it will be a last hurrah for St. Thomas as they are looking to do what Texas-Tyler did a few years back, win in a title in their final year of D-III play.

In St. Paul, Northwestern defeated Misericordia 7-6 in 13 innings to advance to face Johns Hopkins. Both teams had their chances in the extra frames. Misericordia took a 6-4 lead in the 12th but saw Northwestern tied it up on a bang-bang play that saw the Misericordia catcher taken out of the play by the lead runner. The umpires huddles and decided that no interference had taken place and let the runs stand. With the excitement of wining a close one, the Eagle had to recollect and play another. More difficult that it sounds. Johns Hopkins held off the home-standing Eagles with a 3-2 win to be the only team from two years ago to return to the D-III World Series.

Regional Websites: Auburn | Collegeville | Decatur | Hartford | High Point | Marietta | St. Paul | Whitewater

Check out the D3baseball.com Regional Scoreboard for in game scores results and links. As the action continues, you can take a break from what you are doing and get a full picture where each teams stands at the scoreboard.

We will be updating this story with game summaries as we highlight the action with links to game stories so check back often to keep up with all the action.