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| The defending National Champions will be advancing to the super-regional round as they strive to defend their 2023 title. Lynchburg athletics photo |
Like last year, there was a WIAC super-regional where UW-La Crosse and UW-Stevens Point played for a spot in the DIII World Series. This year it is no different except that for UW-La Crosse to make a return they will have to defeat a well known rival, UW-Whitewater. The Warhawks defeated the Eagles four times in five games playing all but one game in La Crosse. The get to the super-regional, UW-Whitewater fought from behind in the Regional Championship, coming away with a 6-4 victory after Matt Scolan's go-ahead home run in the 7th inning put the Warhawks up for good. The road was tougher for UWW's opponent. Coe came out of the winners bracket and need to be defeated twice for UWL to advance. UWL defeated the Kohawks 18-11 in the day's opening game and looked to be cruising to another win in the second game with a 8-2 lead with twio innings left to play. A five spot by Coe in the eight inning put the result in doubt. With an insurance run in the bottom of the ining, the Eagles held on for the 9-7 victory.
Denison will be looking to make the DIII World Series for the first time in their program history but will need to get past a resurgent program in Birmingham-Southern who wants to finish the end of their program on a high note. No. 2 nationally-ranked Denison University captured the 2024 NCAA Granville Regional Championship following a dominant 13-0 victory over No. 23-ranked Rowan University on the Big Red Baseball Field. With its 42nd win of the season, the Big Red will now head to the NCAA Super Regionals for the first time in program history. The win was a clinic in all aspects of the game by the Big Red, who showed their superiority in hitting, pitching and fielding over their opponent all regional long. Just as they have done so often this season, especially this postseason, Denison scored in the opening inning and continued to add on while using their defensive prowness to keep the Profs of the scoreboard. With a big lead, Denison did what they did all season, turn to George Viebrock. Viebrock came in to pitch to start the eighth inning as Lemke exited with seven innings pitched allowing six hits, no runs, one walk and three strikeouts. Rowan did not get two baserunners on in the same inning until the ninth inning, but a swinging strikeout thrown by Viebrock followed by a groundout to Wilson at short sent the Big Red to their first-ever regional championship. Denison's opponent will be Birmingham-Southern. The Panthers also swept through their regional hosted by Transylvania, defeating the host Pioneers 5-2.
After scoring 63 total runs in the opening three games of the best -of-five series between La Verne and Trinity, the deciding game turned the tables and the two teams played to a 0-0 tie in regulation in game four. La Verne finally broke the deadlock in the tenth inning winning on the narrowest of margins, 1-0. In the bottom of the tenth inning, Anthony Salcedo singled to shortstop and moved to third when Benny Vogel doubled down the left field line. After a pitching change, Ryan Vosika ended the game with a single that skidded through the right side of the defense. The Leopards' regional win will pit two teams that won the National Championship the last time they were in the DIII World Series. Lynchburg is the defending champion and La Verne has not been to the Series since 1995 when they won the title on Kiwanis Field in Salem, Virginia. Like the La Verne Leopards, the University of Lynchburg needed a late inning run to advance, The Hornets defeated Case Western Reserve 6-5 on a walk-off groundout from Joe Munitz. Holding a 5-4 lead heading into the ninth inning, Lynchburg allowed a Jack Anderson lead off triple and Anderson scored later to knot the score. The postseason heroics emerged from Munitz, a freshman and all-conference designated hitter. Josh Gjormand led off the game-winning inning with a double down the right field line. He advanced to third on a single from Gavin Collins, then Munitz drove him home with a groundout to shortstop.
Pomona- Pitzer opened their five game regional with Willamette with a loss but swept the Bearcats on Saturday and pounded the ball to the tune of a 24-10 win on Sunday to advance to play East Texas Baptist next weekend on the Tiger's home field in Marshall, Texas. In clutch fashion, No. 4 East Texas Baptist University defeated Clarement-Mudd-Scripps 6-5. Tied at five in the bottom of the ninth inning, Nick Massarini singled up the middle as Charles Gordon came in from second base beating the throw home for the win. ETBU has now won back-to-back Marshall, Texas Regional Tournaments and is 39-8 on the year. They will host the Super Regional Tournament next Friday and Saturday.
Top-seeded Salve Regina University overcame an early deficit to defeat Washington & Jefferson College by a 12-3 score in the championship round of the 2024 NCAA Division III Cortland N.Y. Regional Sunday afternoon at Robert H. Wallace '53 Field on the campus of SUNY Cortland. Salve Regina will now advance to the NCAA Super Regionals next weekend against the nonth ranked Salisbury Sea Gulls. The Seahawks took their first lead with a pair of runs in the fourth and proceeded to use their defense to keep the two run edge. A run in the sixth, four in the seventh and two in the eighth gave the Seahawks their nine run winning margin. To make their first appearance in the DIII World Series, they will have to win two from one of the most successful teams so far in this decade. Salisbury needed to win twice on Sunday and did it in convincing fashion, scoring 26 runs on the day while pitching two shutouts. Salisbury defeated The Mitchell Mariners 15-0 and 11-0 to advance to face Salve Regia.
It would have been easy to see both teams in this regional playing on Monday because the NCAA does not allow a team to play three game in the playoffs on the same day. for this reason, the final game in the NCAA regional round will be played on Monday. In the regional held on the campus of Misericordia, this almost happened but two Misericordia wins that sadwiched a Middlebury victory allowed misericordia to be crowned regional champs. Misericordio opened with a 7-4 win over Keystone and finished the day with a 6-4 win over Middlebury. The Middlebury Panthers defeated Keystone 11-6. No. 10 Christopher Newport needed a win against N.C. Wesleyan to advance to the super-regional round but they did not get it, falling to the the Battling Bishop's 6-1. The two teams will play a single game on Monday to decide who advances to play next weekend.
When the playoff field was set, The NCAA committee guaranteed that the 2024 field will not be duplicated when they put both Johns Hopkins and Endicott on a collision course. Well the two top seeds both made it through. The last time that these two team met, it was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the latest DIII World Series. No. 1 nationally ranked Endicott triumphed over Husson, 4-3, on Sunday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium to capture its third consecutive Regional title. The scorching hot bats of the Gulls stayed locked in early but Husson was able to limit the damage and took its first lead of the game at 3-2 in the fifth. The Gulls responded with a game-tying RBI groundout from Dylan Pacheco, and in the top of the sixth, the Gulls reclaimed the lead with a Robbie Wladkowski sac fly, plating Brendan O'Neil with ease. Husson was able to make one more threat but Joey Frammartino ended the top of the seventh and kept the 4-3 lead intact with a ridiculous robbery against the right field wall, preventing a would-be game-tying extra-base hit for the Eagles. Brady Stuart, who entered in the third inning continued to roll through the Eagles hitters in the eighth and ninth, and eventually worked a ground ball over to Liponis at short to wrap up the Regional victory. For Johns Hopkins, it was another slugfest for the Blue Jays that swept through the regional, ending it with a 19-4 victory over Arcadia. Johns Hopkins hit 16 home runs in three games they played with an average winning margin greater than 12 runs/game.
The 22nd-ranked and second-seeded Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets used a balanced attack at the plate and on the mound in a 5-2 victory over third-seeded Elizabethtown to win the Harrisburg, Pa. Regional. RMC opened a 5-0 lead but Elizabethtown would threaten the lead late. Etown put two in scoring position with one away in the seventh but a foulout and a strikeout stranded the pair. The Blue Jays scored two in the eighth and brought the tying run to the plate before junior Michael Shanahan got a come backer to keep it at 5-2. Shanahan then retired Etown in order in the ninth with two strikeouts to record his first save and send RMC and into next weekend. There will be a lot of yellow on the field next week because the RMC will play another team that sports yellow and black uniforms. Adrian College are NCAA Regional Champions after defeating Catholic on a walk-off in the bottom of the ninth to win 9-8. Adrian trailed by two entering the inning where they loaded the bases which were later cleared on a double from Nic Bruder to push the Bulldogs to the Super Regionals.