By Patrick Coleman
D3sports.com
EASTLAKE, Ohio — Brady Smolinski hit a three-run homer in the second inning and Tyler Cannoe added a two-run shot in the fifth as second-seeded Salve Regina slowed Birmingham-Southern’s Cinderella run through the postseason with a 7-5 win in the teams’ opening game of the 2024 Division III World Series.
Birmingham-Southern, playing on the day that the college formally closed its doors for good, ends the day one game away from elimination at the D-III World Series. The Panthers’ baseball team is the last athletic team left participating at the institution.
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- Photo gallery: Salve Regina vs. Birmingham-Southern
- One last chance for Birmingham-Southern
- Lynchburg's title defense still alive
The Panthers face the loser of Randolph-Macon and UW-Whitewater in the third game of the day on Saturday in an elimination game, while Salve Regina plays the winner in a winner’s bracket game.
The game looked as though Salve Regina was going to run away with it, as the Seahawks ran out to a 7-0 lead after five innings. That included Smolinski’s blast, off Birmingham-Southern starter Drake La Roche, which landed just to the right of a home run target which covers the left field bleachers at Classic Auto Group Park.
Cannoe hit one just over the wall in left as well, hitting a two-run shot onto the grassy berm with one out in the fifth. That gave the Seahawks (39-8) a 7-0 lead.
But Birmingham-Southern was not done.
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| Brady Smolinski was fired up after coming around to score on his three-run homer. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com | More photos from this game |
The Panther bats finally came to life in the seventh inning, where Birmingham-Southern (32-15) got the leadoff batter on for the first time all evening. Ty Truett led off with a single through the hole into left, and Shane Nelson followed with another single, which chased Salve Regina starter Brayden Clark. Jan Weisberg chose that moment to go to his bench, and brought Parker Ladd in to pinch-hit. He walked to load the bases and Eli Steadman followed with an RBI groundout to second. Andrew Dutton smacked a single through the right side to plate two, and importantly, moved to second on an error in right field. That meant Ian Hancock could bring him around with an RBI single to cut the lead to 7-5.
“I wasn't really thinking about the baserunning part,” Dutton said after the game. “I was more worried about getting the hit in that situation. But after I got the hit, the right fielder, it kind of kicked away from him, and I never stopped my momentum. So, I just took that opportunity and said 'I've got to get in the scoring position somehow.’ ”
- D3baseball.com World Series Scoreboard
- D-III World Series Record Book
- D3baseball.com World Series Program
The Panthers threatened again in the eighth, loading the bases with two outs, but Salve Regina second baseman Christian Homa ranged wide to his right to cut off a ball that was headed up the middle, then dove on second base to retire Steadman and end the inning.
And Birmingham-Southern threatened again in the ninth. Jackson Webster led off with a flare over the first baseman’s head and Hancock followed with a walk to put runners on first and second with nobody out. But that’s when Kyle Carozza shut it down. The reliever struck out the final three batters, including the last two caught looking, to slam the door and earn his 11th save of the season.
“With everything going on, you kind of just stop thinking about it,” Carozza said after the game. “The only thing going through my head is probably my mother back home, freaking out. Every time she texts me after the game, if I could just make it easy for her.
“I'm probably going to get three different texts from siblings saying how I made her feel tonight.”
“It's been the same thing all year,” said Smolinski. “He just goes out there, competes, you know exactly what you're going to get, whether he has his ‘A’ stuff, ‘B’ stuff, ‘C’ stuff.
“Today, I think he had his ‘A’ stuff.”
“It was nice to see these guys come out and play like we do play, land the first couple punches and not be timid, even though nobody in America wants us to win or picked us to win,” said Salve Regina coach Eric Cirella, referring to the media circus which surrounds B-SC, which is playing as a team without a school as its college closes down around it.
“That works for us. I don't want you to pick us. I don't want you to root for us. It's a great story if you saw where we came from, but it brings us together. It gives us something to fight for. And that didn't change today. Now everyone picked them, everyone rooted for them, and we just want to play our game.”
Regardless, Salve Regina’s game isn’t typically dependent on the long ball. The Seahawks starting lineup on Friday night had hit a combined 31 home runs all season, while on the Birmingham-Southern side, Webster, Hancock and Dutton came in with a total of 30 homers among just the three of them.
“I think it's coming out right away,” said Cirella. “I think it's getting leadoff guys on -- to me, that's the name of the game. We didn't really use small ball much. We tried to put a hit and run on and Tyler (Cannoe) hit it over the fence. So it's a different way every, every game. I think we have a dynamic offense where we can steal some bags and we can do some little things.”
Smolinski finished 2-for-2 with two walks and the three RBI, while Cannoe went 3-for-3 with two batted in and Matt D’Amato went 2-for-3 with two runs scored for Salve Regina.
As Birmingham-Southern has been on this big ride, Salve Regina has as well.
“I feel like over the last three weeks, I feel I can say this for the whole team,” Cannoe explained,” we've always been tight, but these last three weeks have been a fairytale. Everything's kind of felt was surreal. I feel like a lot of us have really just come closer together.”
And for the Panthers, the goal has to be to focus on the comeback as they head into an elimination game on Saturday. B-SC coach Jan Weisberg said he brought his team together in the middle of the game after they went down 7-0, which is something he rarely does. And he described that conversation at length:
“I thought we were getting to that point where we were pressing a little bit, and to their credit, they weren't creating anything for us.
“And, I just kind of got them up and I said -- I'm always realistic with my team -- I said, analytics or odds say we're probably going to lose this game anyway, right? We're down 7-0. But, let's be more aggressive with our swings rather than just put it into play. I don't care if you get out, but let's start to be aggressive, and see what we can do here.
“And I was really proud of them. (It would) have been really easy just to kind of go, 'oh, it's not our day, we'll just throw some down the line pitchers.' That's a hard message tonight if we lose 8-1. But I think now it's an easy one, right?
“We got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but the way we played the last five innings is who we are. So now let's just keep moving on through this tournament.”
And for the Panthers, playing baseball is the release, the way to get away from all the swirling that has come since the school announced a little more than two months ago that it would close on May 31. Today, in fact, the first day of the Division III World Series.
“It's kind of been our escape for a while now,” Hancock said, “coming to the field, having fun with each other and doing what we're doing. I think we did have a little bit bigger of a crowd presence than we would have normally. That was really cool to see the support, everyone behind us at our game.
“But no, other than that, it did not really cross our minds.”