BALTIMORE, Md. — Senior starting pitcher Zach Clesas (Johnston, R.I.) allowed two runs on just five hits through seven and a third innings and the No. 8/9 Wheaton College (Mass.) baseball team took advantage of three errors in a 4-2 victory over No. 1 Johns Hopkins University this afternoon in the first game of the NCAA Division III Super Regional at Babb Field at Stromberg Stadium in Baltimore, Md.
The Lyons, who are ranked eighth in the most recent D3baseball.com national poll and ninth in the Collegiate Baseball/American Baseball Coaches Association survey, improve to 42-7 on the season to match the school record for wins in a season set by the 2006 team that finished 42-10. The Blue Jays, who top both national polls, slip to 42-5 on the season after coming into the game having won 19 of their last 20.
The game marked the first contest in Super Regional play for Wheaton since the format was adopted in 2019. The Lyons held Johns Hopkins without a home run in its home ballpark for just the third time all season and without an extra-base hit at Babb Field for the first time in 2023. The run total for JHU is also the lowest since a 3-2 loss to Eastern Connecticut State University on March 12.
The Blue Jays scored a pair of runs in the second, before Wheaton got a run back in the fifth to make it a one-run game. The Lyons took the lead for good with a three-run seventh inning.
Clesas struck out three and did not walk a batter, while raising his record to 7-2 on the season for Wheaton. Junior center fielder AJ Guindon (Coventry, R.I.) was 2-3 with a run batted in, while sophomore left fielder Kevin Matos (Lawrence, Mass.) was 1-4 with a solo home run. Sophomore first baseman Timmy Wagner (Hingham, Mass.) was 1-3 with an RBI and senior shortstop Cavan Brady (Sheffield, Mass.) was 2-4 with a run scored. Senior left-handed reliever Zach Nichols (Chicopee, Mass.) got five outs to earn his eighth save of the season after giving up a pair of hits and striking out two in one and two-thirds innings.
Sophomore third baseman Shawn Steuerer (Wellington, Fla.) and senior catcher Sam Frank (Houston, Texas) were both 2-4 with a run scored in the game for Johns Hopkins. Junior center fielder Tripp Myers (Towson, Md.) was 1-4 with an RBI. Graduate student starting pitcher Gabriel Romano (Wading River, N.Y.) was handed his first loss of the season to drop to 10-1 after allowing four runs (one earned) on seven hits and a walk to go with seven strikeouts in eight complete innings.
Wheaton took advantage of three errors and scored three runs to take a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh. Brady stung a ball through the right side to lead off with a single. Senior catcher Robert Wirtanen (Brentwood, N.H.) grounded to third, but the throw was in the dirt and got away from the first baseman, allowing both runners to move into scoring position with one out. Junior right fielder Tommy Ambrosone (Hopkinton, Mass.) hit a ground ball to first with Brady looking to score from third, but the throw from the JHU first baseman was wide of the plate and the Lyons pulled even at 2-2. Wagner stepped into the box with runners on the corners and delivered with an RBI single to left field to plate Wirtanen and give Wheaton its first lead of the day. Johns Hopkins looked to get out of the inning when sophomore Tommy Beauregard (Salem, Mass.) grounded to the left side, but the throw to second was mishandled to keep the inning alive for the Lyons. Wheaton took advantage of the miscue when Guindon increased the Lyons' margin with a sacrifice fly to center field to bring home Wagner with Wheaton's fourth run of the day.
The Blue Jays looked to rally in the bottom of the ninth with sophomore Dillon Souvignier (Boulder, Colo.) and Steuerer smacking back-to-back singles to open the frame. Frank drilled a fly ball to deep right, but Ambrosone raced back to the fence, leaped and snared the ball out of the air to prevent an extra-base hit and keep Wheaton's lead intact. Nichols fanned the next two Johns Hopkins batters to nail down the win and put the Lyons one win away from the College World Series.
JHU struck first with a pair of runs in the top of the second. The Blue Jays registered three straight hits to begin the frame. Steuerer and Frank both hit balls through the left side for singles, before Myers served a run-scoring single to left field. Junior second baseman Jimmy Stevens (New Albany, Ohio) took a pitch off the shoulder to load the bases, before sophomore shortstop Dylan Whitney (Oak Park, Ill.) hit a high fly ball to left for a sacrifice fly to plate Frank with the second run and a 2-0 Johns Hopkins lead.
Clesas settled into a groove for Wheaton, setting down the next 14 Blue Jays in a row and 18 of the final 19 batters he faced with the only blemish being a single to open the seventh for Johns Hopkins. The dominant stretch from Clesas gave the Lyons' offense a chance to get back into the game.
Wheaton got on the board with a run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit in half at 2-1. Matos blasted his 13th home run of the season on a 2-0 pitch that he deposited over the right-center fence for the Lyons' first run. The round-tripper leaves him just one homer short of the school record of 14 shared by Damon Whalen (2002) and Scott Guillerault (2006).