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| After a huge night at the plate on Friday, No. 3 seed Birmingham-Southern hit three more home runs to defeat #1 seed Spalding and advance to the Lexington Regional Championship. The Panthers will need to win once on Sunday to make their second (and last) appearance in the DIII World Series. Home standing Transylvania eliminated Beloit with a 5-2 win to earn a night game with top seeded Spalding. Birminghan Southern athletics photo |
A day after being blown out by the Trinity (Texas) Tigers, the University of La Verne returned the favor - twice. La Verne defeated the Trinity Tigers 15-6 to even the best-of-five series in the NCAA Regional, then added a 12-3 win to take a one game lead in the best-of-five series. In the first game of the day. a pair of homers highlighted the Leopards' offensive explosion. Noah Garcia, who was a triple shy of the cycle yesterday, blew the game open with a grand slam to right field in the fourth to put the Leopards up 10-1 as part of an eight-run inning. Garcia finished the game with five RBIs, two hits, and two runs. He has seven RBIs and six hits in the first two games of the regional.
After a 15-1 win against fourth-seeded Hanover College to open the Granville Regional on Friday, No. 2 nationally-ranked and top-seeded Denison University improved to 2-0 in the NCAA Division III Regional Baseball Tournament with a 26-7 win over No. 23-ranked and second-seeded Rowan University on Saturday. The Big Red will now advance to the Regional Championship game on Sunday with a trip to their first-ever Super Regional on the line. It will be Denison's fourth straight appearance in the regional championship game. By the end of the game, 11 different players had at least one hit for the Big Red while eight of the nine players in the starting lineup had at least two hits. The Bid Red's opponent will be the winner of the Rowan-Hanover game. Hanover narrowly defeated Millikin 4-3 in the regional's first elimination game.
Benedictine set the single season school record for victories, staving off elimination by homering four times in the first game of the day on Saturday to down Bethel 12-4. Benedictine bashed 18 hits in the win. Logan Gregorio drove home six runs. Kevin Bushnell finished 5-for-6 at the plate with a homer, two doubles and three runs scored. Bennan Fisher accumulated four hits. Eight of the nine in the lineup posted a hit to keep the season alive. Benedictine will play host UW-La Crosse who fell to Coe 12-11 in ten innings.
Pomona-Pitzer moved within one win of advancing to the NCAA Super Regional after a doubleheader win over Willamette capped off with a Jack Gold walk-off homer in game two on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Field. After being down 1-0 in their best-of-five series with the Bearcats, the Sagehens came back for an 11-5 win in game one and a 10-7 win in game two to improve to 34-12 on the year. In game two for the five-game series, the Sagehen were led by JC Ng who went 4-5 with three RBI and two runs scored. Greg Pierantoni, Nate Jakobs, and Gold all had two hits as well in the win with Jimmy Legg and Matthew Nishimura getting one hit each. In completing the sweep, the Sagehens were led by Gold who had a game to remember with two home runs including the walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth. Peter Savas went 3-3 at the plate while Ng went 2-4.
History was made on Saturday afternoon as Centre picked up its first NCAA Tournament victory in program history, knocking off the Crown College Polars 16-5 in an elimination game to stay alive. They earned a date with Cal Lutheran who fell to UWW, 20-3, in the winner bracket game. After being shut out for the first time all season with just four hits yesterday, the Centre offense responded in a big way with 16 runs on 16 hits, with Josh Cunningham and Jaime Laframboise delivering three each. Every Centre player in the starting lineup scored at least one run, led by three each from Cunningham and Ben Prather.
University of Lynchburg defeated Case Western Reserve 5-0 on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament behind a winning-pitching performance from Nick Mattfield and pinch-hit home run from Sean Pokorak. The Hornets will play Case Western Reserve on Sunday after the Spartans eliminated Alvernia 8-3 in the day's late game. Alvernia earlier defeated Ithaca 10-4 to send the Bombers home. One win will put the defending National Champions into the super-regional round. Case Western will need to win twice. In Lynchburg's first trip to the plate Benton Jones singled with one out to get Lynchburg started. With Riley O'Donovan at the plate, Jones broke for second and turned for third after the pitch escaped to the backstop. CWRU's catcher collected the ball and tried to nab Jones advancing to third but threw the ball into left field, allowing Jones to score the first run of the game easily. Jones' run proved to be the difference in the game leading to Mattfield's sixth win of the year. The senior pitched 6 1/3 innings with five Ks and six hits. With more than just Gimbel's nice first-inning catch on the day, Mattfield had some stellar defensive play behind him to get him into the seventh unscathed.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps set a program record with its 31st win, and picked up its first NCAA victory since 1996, when it defeated Centenary (La.) 10-5 on Saturday afternoon at East Texas Baptist, advancing through to play another elimination game later today. In the Centerary contest, the Stags had four homers on from Bryce Didrickson, Andrew Mazzone, Adam Dapkewicz and Blaise Heher. Didrickson hit a two-run shot in the second inning to put CMS ahead 3-0, and Mazzone and Dapkewicz hit back-to-back solo shots in the fourth to stretch the lead to 5-0, and Heher hit a solo shot in the eighth to answer a Centenary run in the bottom of the seventh and make the score 10-1.
Senior Camren Varney tossed a complete game one-hitter, leading Mitchell College past No. 9 Salisbury University 5-1 in NCAA Tournament action on Saturday afternoon in the Babson Park Regional at Govoni Field. The hard throwing right hander went the distance for the second consecutive outing, surrendering one run and two walks, while striking out six. Varney also hit three batters, but allowed only two batters to reach third base all game. The Salisbury Sea Gulls will get another shot at the Marineers after eliminating Mass-Dartmouth 9-0. To return for the fourth straight appearance, they will need to win twice on Sunday.
Christian Homa's seventh inning single which allowed Evan O'Rourke and Brandon Grover to score made a tied 2-2 ball game a 4-2 victory for Salve Regina University over SUNY Cortland in game four of the Cortland NCAA regional. It was a rainy morning but cleared just in time for Sean Mulligan to take the mound for the Seahawks. Mulligan pitched six innings, threw 71 strikes in 119 pitches, faced 29 batters and delivered six strikeouts. "I just stayed to what I know," said Mulligan. "We've had a great year, and we have really pulled things together. It's hard not to have confidence with these boys. I've got 49 brothers on this team; I just go out there and throw for them every day." Salve Regina stands one win from the super-regional round next week. They play Washington & Jefferson who won twice on Saturday, eliminating Colby 7-0 and doing the same to Cortland 3-1.
Weather allowed one game to be played in the Misericodia regional and Middlebury avoided elimination. Middlebury earned a hard-fought, back-and-forth 9-8 triumph over St. John Fisher in extra innings on Saturday evening to continue its run in the NCAA Tournament. The winners bracket game will be moved to Sunday with the prospects of playing up to three games on the day. In the 10th, Zip Malley and Beau Root opened the inning with back-to-back singles to put runners on first and third. St. John Fisher's defense managed to stop Malley from scoring on a fielder's choice by Borter, but one batter later, Root tallied the go-ahead run on a fielder's choice off the bat of McCausland to make it 9-8. The Cardinals put runners on the corners in their half of the inning, but reliever Andrew Gatland worked out of the jam, striking out Nick Lemire looking to earn the save and give the Panthers a 9-8 win.
Junior Chaz Harvey put the Yellow Jackets ahead with his 12th homer of the season and four hurlers held the Lions in check as the 22nd-ranked and second-seeded Randolph-Macon defeated 14th-ranked and top-seeded Penn State Harrisburg 7-3 on Saturday afternoon to advance to the championship game of the Harrisburg Regional. The 'Jackets are now just three wins from their second appearance in the DIII World Series. The Yellow Jackets have started 2-0 in a regional for the third time in program history. RMC won its first three games in the Washington, Pa. Regional in 2016 and its first four games in the Holly Springs, N.C. Regional in 2018. The Yellow Jackets won their only regional title in 2018 to advance to the Division III College World Series in Appleton, Wis. RMC recorded its 30th win, reaching that number for the fourth time in program history and all have come since 2016. The Yellow Jackets had 32 wins a season ago. The Yellow Jackets have recorded 30 victories in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history. RMC is the only Division III program to win NCAA playoff games in football, men's basketball and baseball this academic year.
Husson University avoided elimination in the 2024 NCAA Division III Baseball Willimantic, Conn. Regional with its 4-2 victory over No. 22 Eastern Connecticut State University on Saturday evening at the University of Connecticut's Elliot Ballpark. Similarly to yesterday's regional-game, Husson (24-11) found the scoreboard first but Eastern Connecticut State (29-15) found an equalizer in the visitor-half of the fourth inning. After the Warriors took their first lead of the contest in the top of the sixth inning, Husson responded with three runs of its own in the bottom-half of the inning. Eastern Connecticut State managed to load the bases off of senior Alex Smith in the top of the eighth, but classmate Ryan Robb entered the game and forced a ground out to end the inning and keep the lead intact for the Eagles. Robb surrendered a pair of base runners in the ninth inning, but held strong to tally his fourth save of the season and push Husson to victory.
Adrian College moves on to the NCAA Regional Championship after defeating Penn State Behrend on Saturday afternoon, 12-1. The Bulldogs earned its 31st win of the season and their 31st NCAA Tournament victory in program history. In Adrian's last three NCAA Tournament appearances, the Bulldogs have made it to the Regional Championship. Adrian collected 15 hits as a team on Saturday with three coming from Kedrow and two from Bruder, Casale, Davis, and Jimenez. Jaxon Clark earned his seventh win of the season after tossing 6.2 innings and allowing one run on four hits with six strikeouts. Catholic won twice to earn the other spot in the championship game. They first had to defeat No. 3 Baldwin Wallace and did so by a 9-7 score. Next on the plate for the Cardinals was Penn State Behrend. Catholic handily defeated the Lions 14-2.
Johns Hopkins continuied their home run parade with seven more home runs to dispatch the Arcadia Knights 20-8. Shawen Steuerer, Caleb Cyr, and Isaiah Winikur hit two on the day with Alex Shane adding one of his own. They will have to beat Arcadia and 10-3 winner over Ramapo game just once to take the next step in giving their lont-tern head coach Bob Babb his first National Championship.
For the third season in a row Christopher Newport will compete for a regional title after 10th-ranked CNU (28-9) captured a 7-2 win over 17th-ranked North Carolina Wesleyan (34-12) on a rainy day at Captains Park Saturday afternoon. The Captains got a mammoth two-run blast from Justin Liakos to highlight the offensive production while Brandon Cassedy (7-3) earned a hard-fought win with six shutout frames on the mound. In 2022, Christopher Newport reached the NCAA Regional title game against Marietta College on their home field. In 2023, the Captains faced Shenandoah for a chance to advance to the Super Regional in Winchester. This year, CNU will compete for the regional championship on their own home field against either N.C. Wesleyan or Immaculata, who will face off in an elimination game on Sunday morning