Adrian, Mich. – March 20, 2011 – Senior All-American Jason Lash (Strongsville, Ohio / Strongsville) scored on a passed ball in the top of the 10th inning to give the Heidelberg University baseball team a 2-1 win over Adrian College at Nicolay Field in Adrian, Mich. It was the second straight outing between the two teams that resulted in extra innings. A day earlier, the host Bulldogs had a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th for the win.
The Berg is the top-ranked team in the nation according to D3Baseball.com and improves to 11-1 on the year, while Adrian falls to 5-4.
Heidelberg has now won five of the last six meetings between the two schools. Since 2008, Heidelberg and Adrian have met 11 times, with the Berg holding a 7-4 advantage. Over that span, Adrian (2008) and Heidelberg (2010) have each represented the tough Mideast Region at the Division III World Series in Appleton, Wis.
In the second inning, Adrian loaded the bases to set the stage for an Andrew DeLuca RBI single to shallow left field to break a scoreless tie. Heidelberg's Brian Koehl (Sylvania, Ohio / Sylvania Northview) settled in on the mound to strike out the next two batters, leaving three Bulldog runners on the base paths and end the scoring threat.
After leaving seven base runners stranded through six innings, Heidelberg came alive in the seventh. Andrew Buelow (Marysville, Mich. / Marysville) led the inning off with a ground rule double to left field. Two batters later, Buelow scored from second on a sacrifice fly to deep left center by Ricardo Lizcano (Toledo, Ohio / Roy C. Start) to even the score and start a new ballgame. Heidelberg continued to threaten after its game-tying run, but fell into its old habit and left two runners on.
The game-winning run for the Berg came in the 10th. Lash and Alex Monroe (Chargrin Falls, Ohio / Kenston) led the inning off with walks before being sacrificed over by Derek Andrzejczak (Sylvania, Ohio / Sylvania Northview) to set the stage for the eventual game-winning run.
All-American closer Andy Lowe (Fort Wayne, Ind. / Carroll) entered the game in seventh with two outs and one on. He struck out his first batter he faced and went on to sit down two more before picking up his first win of the year. Senior right-hander Brian Koehl (Sylvania, Ohio / Sylvania Northview) got the start and was tough on the mound. He tied his career-high of 10 strike outs, while giving up just four hits in 7.2 innings of work. He allowed just one earned run and walked seven.
Heidelberg finished the day with nine hits, but just registered multiple hits in the second inning. Finishing with two hits apiece was Lizcano, Andrzejczak and Buelow.