ITHACA, N.Y. - The Catholic University baseball team exploded for 16 runs, scoring in all but two innings, to secure its first-ever appearance in the Division III College World Series with a 16-2 win over Ithaca Sunday.
The Cardinals (34-12), who are the first team from the Landmark Conference to advance to the national championship, will join seven other winners from the Super Regionals at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Highlighted by a two-run double from senior Peter Giombetti, Catholic scored four runs in the bottom of the first. The team added four more in the bottom of the second on a grand slam by junior Ben Nardi, his eighth home run of the season and 60th hit of the season.
Nardi became the eighth player in program history, which started back in 1896, to total at least 60 hits in a season.
The Cardinals extended their lead to 10-1 with two more runs in the third, including one on the second sac fly by senior Matt Tesoriero.
After a scoreless fourth and fifth for both teams, Catholic plated three runs in the bottom of the sixth, including two on a two-run double by graduate student Billy Duke. He added an RBI-single in the seventh to increase the margin to 14-1.
Nardi and Giombetti capped the scoring with the RBIs in the bottom of the eighth to make it 16-1 before the Bombers (34-14) scored on an RBI-single in the top of the ninth to provide the final margin.
Duke finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs while freshman Lucas Malave also had three hits, going 3-for-5. Nardi went 2-for-5 with five RBIs.
Giombetti was 2-for-5 with four RBIs and Tesoriero was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. With a leadoff single in the bottom of the sixth, Tesoriero became the ninth player in team history with 60 hits while Giombetti was No. 10 with a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh.
Prior to this year, the Cardinals had never had more than one person total 60 or more hits in a season. Nardi, Tesoriero and Giombetti are the first teammates to do it in the same year.
Meanwhile, freshman Dante Pozzi went 2-for-3 with four runs to extend his on-base streak to 41 games.
On the mound, sophomore Danny Fitzgerald earned his sixth win of the season and his first as a starting pitcher, scattering six hits over 5.0 innings while not allowing an earned run and striking out four.
Freshman Cody Bosak pitched three shutout innings of relief before the senior trio of Skylar McLean, Nick Dziuba and Nick Marini combined to seal the win in the ninth.