By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com
Scott Roberts came into the Division III World Series having given up just seven runs all season, but Salisbury knocked him around for seven more in the first three-plus innings en route to an 11-1 victory in Cedar Rapids. The game was the final contest of a long day, the first one of the Series, and did not start until 9:45 p.m. local time.
- D3baseball.com World Series Scoreboard
- World Series: Day one
- D-III World Series Record Book
- The D3baseball.com World Series Program
- D-III World Series Bracket
- 2021 was anything but usual
Salisbury advanced to play Wheaton (Mass.) in a winner’s bracket game on Saturday evening in Cedar Rapids. Cortland will face Rowan in an elimination game.
Jackson Balzan, who entered the tournament with a 7-1 record, finished with a complete game nine-hitter, striking out nine and walking none. The only blemish was a James Varian home run in the fifth inning.
"We haven't been pitched like that in a long time," said Cortland coach Joe Brown.
"I was fastball-curveball today, and both of them were working. I was dominating the inner half of the plate," Balzan said.
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| Justin Meekins slides in safely for the Sea Gulls in the sixth inning, with one of his two runs on the night in an 11-1 win against Cortland. Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com | More photos from this game |
Salisbury jumped on top early, as Sky Rahill launched a three-run homer to right-center as part of a four-run first inning.
After getting staked to that four-run lead, Balzan got out of a big jam, striking out Varian looking and Ben Rhodes swinging with a runner in scoring position. The Sea Gulls manufactured a run when Luke Weddell walked, moved up to third on a sacrifice bunt and an infield grounder and came around to score when Kavi Caster mashed a single through the left side.
Roberts avoided more damage when Cortland first baseman Matthew Kraft snagged a line drive that was destined for the right field corner. That stranded two Sea Gulls in scoring position to end the third after a run came across. But Salisbury second baseman Cullen McAuliffe, the Gulls’ No. 9 hitter, greeted Roberts with a home run down the left field line to open the fourth and Roberts was lifted one batter later.
Roberts, who was the starting pitcher for Cal Lutheran in the Kingsmen’s 2017 national title win against Washington & Jefferson, had worked his way into a starter’s role at Cortland with a long relief stint against Oswego, then getting a start in the regional. He went a combined 14 and one-third innings and allowing just one earned run in games against Oswego and Mitchell.
"We're not here if Scott Roberts doesn't get the performances down the stretch against Oswego and Mitchell, a very good team," said Brown. "We are literally without our No. 1-2-3 pitchers this entire season."
Rahill finished 3-for-4 with three runs scored and the three RBI to lead the Sea Gulls. Weddell drove in two runs and scored twice, while McAuliffe was 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored for Salisbury.