CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Brian Brewer was ready to pull his starting pitcher Trent Valentine in the seventh inning of the first game of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship on Friday afternoon.
 
But pitching coach Mike Mulvey convinced Brewer to leave the All-American in for one more inning.
 
The left-hander rewarded his coach with another good inning and was a key reason why the Pioneers defeated Catholic University 7-0 on a sunny 76-degree day at Perfect Game Field in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
 
"His count didn't really get that high. It's been a race to (Sam) Mathews all year. The sooner we can get the ball in his hands the happier we are and typically better the situation is," Brewer said. "(Valentine) did exactly what he needed to do. If Trent can give us seven or eight innings and keep his count under 100 pitches, whether they are strikeouts or ground outs or fly ball outs … outs are outs and that's what we are looking for."
 
Valentine's approach was simple and it worked to perfection.
 
"I've been sticking to what I've been doing," Valentine said. "Throwing the fastball and change ups when I need to. Let the defense work and pitch to contact and getting outs."
 
Valentine, who got stronger as the game progressed, also understands that in a tournament like this pitching can get stretched thin, so an eight-inning performance and a victory puts Marietta in a strong position moving forward.
 
"It's always in the back of my mind, and it worked well because pitching to contact they were getting some bad swings early and the defense was fielding the ball," Valentine said.
 
He allowed just four hits and walked two while striking out eight as he improved to 14-1 on the season.
 
Mathews threw a perfect ninth inning to close out the Marietta victory.
 
Marietta's offense sputtered a bit in the first two innings as Catholic's tall lefty Jack Zaffiro quieted the powerful MC batters.
 
"I think they made an interesting, but the right choice throwing (Zaffiro)," Brewer said. "That was a tough match-up for us. I'm sure there was some strategy there. It was the right strategy."
 
With two outs in the third, though, Marietta rallied for three runs.
 
The Pioneers (44-5) broke through when Turner Hill walked, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Damian Yenzi, who also reached on a walk, stole second and Hill scored on the throw for the first run.
 
"We managed to manufacture slash, speed up the game in the middle innings," Brewer said. "I think that relaxed us a little bit and then we got better offensively."
 
Drew Holderbach and Logan Vietmeier followed with back-to-back doubles to give the Pioneers a 3-0 lead. Holderbach finished the game with two hits and two runs.
 
"We were just sticking to our approach of hitting the outside fastball. That's what I got and I felt like I put a pretty good swing on it," Holderbach said. "It's just something we've done all year long. We've had a lot of big innings that started with two outs, and those are the situations you want to be in. I was happy to be in that spot today."
 
Marietta had three doubles in the game, which set a single season record for doubles with 152.
 
Drew Wilkinson had a double in the fourth inning that scored Zach Boyd, and then Marietta scored three more runs in the fifth inning, which was highlighted by Trent Castle's triple down the right-field line that scored Holderbach and Vietmeier. Castle also scored on Boyd's single.
 
Marietta put pressure on Catholic (34-15) by bunting and being aggressive on the base paths.
 
"There's a few times this year that we've done that and we talked to the guys and sometimes it's just showing bunt and other times it's executing the bunt," Brewer said. "Just having a guy on first base changes a lot of things. Just showing a bunt changes things. … There's a lot of value in the bunt game and we've lived on it. That opens up some opportunities for our guys in the middle of the lineup."
 
Catholic coach Ross Natoli said his squad would put the loss behind them and get ready to play in Saturday's loser's bracket game.
 
"I think the most deserving team came out on top. They played a little bit better than we did," he said. "Marietta took advantage of a couple of miscues on our part and then they got the big hit when they needed it."
 
Marietta plays again at 2:15 p.m. (EDT)/ 1:15 p.m. (CDT) Saturday against the winner of Salisbury and Wisconsin-Stevens Point.