May 30, 2021

Championship Sunday?

Johns Hopkins' Jack Pausic hit two home runs in their Sunday elimination game with St. Mary's (Minn.). The Blue Jays survived and eliminated the Cardinals, with the Eagles on deck.
Photo by Caleb Williams, d3photography.com


Sunday is typically a day in which we crown regional champions, and some teams may well punch their tickets to Cedar Rapids today, but far from all.

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!

Adrian charges out of the dugout in celebration as the Bulldogs move to the championship game at the Whitewater Regional. 
Photo by Doug Sasse, d3photography.com | More photos from this game
 

Adrian scored a single run in the fifth and it looked like it would stand up but UW-Whitewater scored two in the eighth on Nick Santoro's single. Adrian responded as Brady Wood knocked in two to take a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth. In Whitewater's final trip to the plate, Ryan Norton's fly out was not deep enough and as Eric Hughes tagged up, he was thrown out at the plate, ending the game in favor of Adrian. Whitewater went on to beat Texas Lutheran 9-4 on Sunday afternoon, setting up a showdown for all the marbles on Monday. UWW went on to defeat Texas Lutheran 9-4 and set up a winner-take-all game on Monday with Adrian or UW-Whitewater advancing to the D-III World Series.

Cortland and Tufts will come back tomorrow to do it all again in a winner-take-all fashion as the Red Dragons got past Tufts 6-4 on Sunday. Cortland (30-7) put up a three-spot in the fourth inning on a bases-loaded walk by Scott Gioradno, followed by a two-run single by Colin BeVard. The Red Dragons carried a 6-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh when Tufts (15-7) chased started Ryan Flansburg, who hit a three-run homer. But Liam Krasney came on to get the save, pitching the final three innings.

The magic ride for Merchant Marine ended, but not without some last at-bat drama. Trailing 7-1 going into the bottom of the ninth of an elimination game, the Mariners (18-5) scored five runs, including a bases-loaded triple by Brayden O'Connell. The Mariners did get the tying run on base but reliever Spencer Langdon was able to induce an infield grounder for the final out, preserving a 7-6 win. 

One night after stranding 11 baserunners in a 3-1 loss to Northwestern (Minn.), St. Mary's had similar troubles getting runs across the plate. The Cardinals stranded 13 as the Blue Jays of Johns Hopkins flew past them in a 7-2 win. Meanwhile, Jack Pausic, the No. 9 hitter for JHU, went deep twice, driving in four runs, and senior Brian Linton came out of the bullpen for the longest of long relief stints, going seven and one-third innings, striking out 10, to get his first victory of the season. Johns Hopkins advances into the evening game against host Northwestern, which is sitting at 2-0 in the St. Paul Regional in Roseville, Minnesota. Johns Hopkins kept their bats warm and defeated Northwestern 11-7. They advance to face Misericordia who eliminated Aurora earlier in the day 6-5. The Cougars almost did not advance as Aurora rallied in their final at-bat. The Spartans fell a run short aftter opening the inning with four extra-base hits in the first five batters.

Chapman has had no problem scoring runs in their regional run. The Panthers were a 19-2 winner over Texas-Dallas and now have scored 39 runs in their three games in the Collegeville Regional. Six of the regular starters had two or more hits before Chapman head coach Scott Laverty started making substitutions. St. Thomas has had trouble scoring runs all season but that was not a problem in their forst two games. In their last two, runs were at a premium. In their game with Pacific, the Tommies only scratched out one. The strength of their team failed to keep the Boxers off the boards as Pacific defeated St. Thomas 10-1. St. Thomas scratched out three runs heading into the ninth to see two wild throws to first allow three runs to score to Chapman. The Tommies had one more run coming and walked off in the ninth to a date with Pacific in the Championship game on Monday.

Cole Steadman helped blow the game open with a three-run homer. The blast came as part of a five-run second, after a four-run first, and Birmingham-Southern went on to cruise past Lynchburg 11-2 at the High Point Regional. The Panthers advance to the championship against Salisbury, needing to beat the Sea Gulls twice, while Salisbury can advance to the Division III World Series with one win. Salisbury did not need the if necessary game. The Sea Gulls defeated Birmingham Southern 9-6 in 12 innings as the first team to advance to the D-III World Series.

Rowan made it two wins over host Marietta to become the second team to advance to the D-III World Series. The Profs did it with a 9-8 win in 10 innings. I was an error on Jared Marks single and a sacrifice but that put Marks on third. An infield hit did not bring in Marks but a groundout did. Zach Listro pitched a perfect tenth and Rowa was World Series bound.

The Marietta Pioneers, facing elimination, broke through in the sixth inning against Penn State-Behrend and sparked a come-from-behind 7-3 victory over the Lions to advance to the championship game. Instead of the Marietta team helping run the Regional, their run in the regional continued. Marietta scored three in the sixth and two each in the seventh and eighth innings, and rode strong relief pitching from senior Isaac Danford and junior Sam Mathews.

Washington needed one win against Denison and they did not get it in the first region championship game. The Big Red defeated the Bears 14-10 to force a second championship game with the winner advancing to the D-III World Series. Washington turned to Jared Fong who delivered the game of his career. Denison got to Fong in the eight and the Bears asked their best starting pitcher, Ryan Loutes to keep the goose egg on the scoreboard. It turned out to be the right move as Washington joined Rowan and Salisbury in next weeks Championship 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.