The opening weekend of the 2015 NCAA Division II Baseball National Finals are in the book. We had a few interesting results, some spectacular performances, and we move on to the elimination portions of the tournament starting with Monday, Memorial Day.
Saturday, May 23rd
Henderson State - 4
Angelo State - 0
Box Score
The Reddies, in their first national finals game ever, sure didn't look like the moment would get the best of them. Behind six shutout innings from Colton Lorance (7-4), where he allowed five hits and one walk with a strikeout, Henderson State got some timely hitting and took it to the Rams of ASU. All told, the Reddies staff combined for a six-hit shutout, as Nick Vanthillo threw two shutout innings to nail down his 13th save of the season.
Hunter Mayall led off the bottom of the first for HSU with a single, stole second, moved to third on a groundout, and came in to score on an RBI single from Tadarious Hawkins. Little did anyone know, that would be all they needed.
The Reddies added single runs again in the fifth on a Mayall RBI single, in the seventh on a stolen base by Conner Brackhahn and a throwing error by the catcher, and finally in the eighth when Claude Johnson scored on a wild pitch. There weren't huge offensive performances, but HSU won the game like they have won many games all year, opportunistic hitting, taking advantage of opponents' mistakes, and keeping their own mistakes to a minimum.
Interesting, to me at least, was that ASU went with Blake Bass (10-3) on the mound as opposed to Steve Naemark. I have to assume Naemark was being afforded a few extra days off due to his regional workload. I have to think the All-American will be on the mound on Monday for an elimination game. Bass didn't have a bad performance in the least, going seven innings and allowing only two earned runs, but I just found it an interesting decision. Could be a rest thing, could be an injury, I have no idea.
With the victory, the Reddies move on to a winner's bracket game against Catawba, while Angelo State will face Wilmington in a Monday elimination game.
Saturday, May 23rd
Catawba - 3
Wilmington - 2
Box Score
The offensive powerhouse of Catawba had to lean on some stellar pitching to overcome the hot Wildcats of Wilmington. The Indians held Wilmington to only two hits in the game, and got production at both the plate and on the mound from regional pitcher of the year Craig Brooks, a big part of their victory.
Catawba put up two runs in the top of the first inning behind a Luke Setzer double, Will Albertson single, T.J. Wharton RBI groundout and Brooks RBI double.
Wilmington cut in to the lead with a lead-off homerun by Sam Goines in the second inning, but their only hit after that was a fifth-inning single by Frank Samluk.
The Indians added a third run in the top of the fourth on a Kyle Smith sacrifice fly to go up 3-1, but Wilmington responded again with a sixth-inning run that they manufactured through a pair of walks, sacrifice bunt and RBI groundout by Christian Adorno.
Unfortunately for Wilmington, the Catawba bullpen would combine for four innings of hitless relief to nail down the victory, capped off by Brooks' second save of the season, as he struck out three hitters in two innings of work. Shaefer Shepard (11-3) picked up the victory with five innings of work, allowing only two hits and two runs with three walks and three strikeouts. Brooks' work at the plate was just as impressive, as he went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a double.
The Wildcats got a wonderful start from their ace, Jamie Treml (8-1), who took his first loss of the season, working seven innings, allowing five hits and three runs with three walks and five strikeouts.
Catawba moves on to face Henderson State in a winner's bracket game on Monday, while Wilmington faces Angelo State in an elimination game.
Sunday, May 24th
Mercyhurst - 3
Truman State - 1 (11 inn.)
Box Score
A tightly-played game between a pair of first-time national final teams went in to extras, as the Lakers were able to pull out the victory after an impressive defensive stand in the bottom of the ninth.
The two teams fought to a 1-1 stalemate through nine innings thanks to a pair of ace pitching performances. Mercyhurst starter Colin McKee went 6.1 innings and allowed only two hits and one run with two walks and six strikeouts. He was matched only by Cody Gardner, who needed 114 pitches to work nine innings, allowing only four hits and one run with three walks and three strikeouts.
The lone runs in regulation innings came from Mercyhurst in the second on a sacrifice fly by Austin Alonge, which scored Hank Morrison after he tripled in the at-bat prior.
Truman responded with their lone run in the bottom of the fifth, as they got a two-out rally with a double from TJ Wood and an RBI single from Zak Larkin to draw even.
The Bulldogs had a golden chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth, with a leadoff walk and a sacrifice bunt to move the winning run to second. After another walk, a pitching change, and yet another walk to load the bases with one out, Jake Hall came in and got a strikeout on a 3-2 pitch and the Lakers got out of the inning when a bunt attempt was grabbed by the catcher, who stepped on the plate for the final out of the inning to send the game to extras.
In the 11th, Mercyhurst got a one-out single from Ryan Siegel, who then stole second and came home to score on a Brendan Cox RBI single. They would add another run later in the inning on an error, setting up the victory in the bottom of the 11th. The Bulldogs put two men on with one out, but Hall was able to get a flyout and groundout to end the game and keep the Lakers in the winner's bracket.
Hall (1-1) earned the victory with 2.2 innings of relief, allowing two hits and one walk with a pair of strikeouts, including that huge one to start his outing in the ninth.
Mercyhurst faces Tampa in a winner's bracket game on Tuesday, while Truman State will try to stay alive in an elimination game against Cal Poly Pomona.
Sunday, May 24th
Tampa - 7
Cal Poly Pomona - 4 (10 inn.)
Box Score
It turned in to a long day for the workers and fans at the stadium as the nightcap on Sunday hit extra innings as well.
With all respect given to the prior three games, which all turned out to be spectacular, the highlight of the weekend was this contest, where we had a perennial contender in Tampa going up against what is most likely going to be a first-round MLB Draft Pick in CPP's Cody Ponce.
Ponce ran in to some trouble early on, albeit through not much fault of his own. Tampa came to the plate with a great approach in the top of the first, as Andrew Amaro took a mid-90's fastball from Ponce the other way for a lead-off single, then proceeded to steal second and third, setting up the game's first run on an RBI double from Stephen Dezzi with one out, again to the opposite field against the hard-throwing Bronco pitcher. After a strikeout for out two, it looked like CPP would get out of the inning only down 1-0, but the inning was extended with a throwing error on a routine grounder, allowing a second run to score. The next at-bat, somewhat predictably from a veteran team, resulted in an opposite field RBI double from Nick Flair that made it a 3-0 game.
Credit to Pomona, however, for not giving up. The Broncos battled back with single runs in the second on a Kyle Garlick sacrifice fly and in the fifth on a Michael Zidek RBI single that scored the aforementioned Garlick to make it 3-2.
Tampa got another run in the top of the sixth after Ponce had rolled through the Spartan lineup for four straight innings, as Chris Pagliarulo hit an RBI double that scored Giovanny Alfonzo.
The Broncos responded with an answer of their own in the bottom half of the inning off reliever Dylan Barrow, getting a pair of one-out walks and a hit by pitch to load the bases. The damage was limited as Pomona was able to get a sacrifice fly from Garlick, but an infield pop-up finished the inning with Tampa still holding a 4-3 lead.
It took until the ninth, but the Broncos were finally able to battle back. After a Zidek lead-off single and a sacrifice bunt to move him to second, a groundout appeared to halt the Pomona rally, but a two-out double up the right field gap from Mike Philip tied the game and sent it to extra innings for the second straight game.
Unfortunately for Pomona, it looked like the bullpen finally ran out of gas in the 10th. Three hit-by-pitches, the last on Nick Tindall, who caught the pitch on his side with the bases loaded to bring in the go-ahead run, followed by a two-out, two-RBI double from Casey Scoggins, who threw out the tying run at the plate against Florida Tech in the regional championship game, gave Tampa a 7-4 lead that was too much for the Broncos to overcome in the bottom half of the inning.
Ponce finished his day with 98 pitches in seven innings of hard-fought work, allowing eight hits and two earned runs (four total) with two walks and eight strikeouts.
Tampa starter Michael Calkins went five innings, allowing six hits and two earned runs with one walk and four strikeouts, while Barrow contributed four innings in relief with three hits, two earned runs, three walks and four strikeouts, but he earned the victory to move to 6-2 on the season.
Tampa will face Mercyhurst in a winner's bracket game on Tuesday, while Cal Poly Pomona will face Truman in an elimination game.
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