There wasn't much drama to be had on Thursday heading in to the weekend. The two teams which entered Thursday's pair of games undefeated so far in the tournament went on to victory, allowing the championship series to get under way on Friday rather than any winner-take-all games on Friday.
Game Eleven
Nova Southeastern - 5
Cal Poly Pomona - 2
W: Loret de Mola (7-3); L: Beattie (6-2); S: Raftery (15)
Box Score
An advantage of winning your first two games at the national final tournament is that you usually get to save at least one of your top pitchers until later in the week. That's just what Nova Southeastern was able to do with their best pitcher, statistically, in Julian Loret de Mola. Although Alex Mateo is the ace of the staff, Loret de Mola had put up better numbers most of the year, and was making his first appearance in the tournament when he toed the rubber on Thursday afternoon.
CPP got off to an early lead in the top of the second with the first tally of the contest. Nic Hernandez walked to lead off the inning, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, and came in to score on a Michael Zidek RBI single to stake themselves to a 1-0 lead.
NSU responded in the bottom of the fourth on Jake Anchia's eighth home run of the year, a two-run shot to left to score himself and Daniel Zardon, who reached on a dropped fly ball to lead off the inning. And if it wasn't for Michael Hernandez getting hit in the hand with a swing in their last game, Anchia might not even be in the lineup.
The Broncos were able to draw even with a tie in the top of the sixth on a Jason Padlo RBI single to score Chris Stratton, who walked, stole second and moved to third on an error.
The winning runs in the contest came in the next half-inning, when NSU put another two runs on the board, as Jancarlos Cintron and Andres Visbal each notched RBI singles to take the lead back, 4-2.
NSU added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on another Visbal RBI single to make it 5-2, and closer Devin Raftery kept the door closed and locked, throwing two shutout innings of relief to earn the save and move on to the championship series.
Game Twelve
Millersville - 4
Lander - 2
W: Shannon (9-1); L: Rogers (7-3); S: Anderson (1)
Box Score
The script went pretty much the same way in the second game of the day, with Lander taking an early lead much like CPP did. The Bearcats put up two runs in the top of the third on a two-run homer from Colby Lusignan, his 14th of the year, to give Lander an early lead.
From there on out, it was all Marauders. They tied and took the lead in the bottom of the fifth as they brought nine hitters to the plate. After loading the bases with nobody out, Tyler Orris drew a bases loaded walk to get on the board, then Chas McCormick hit a two-RBI single through the left side of the infield to move ahead, 3-2.
The lead moved to 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh on a Dan Stoltzfus RBI single up the middle to score McCormick, who singled and moved to second on a throwing error the batter before.
With that lead, Reid Anderson came in and converted his first save of the year with two innings of one-hit relief with three strikeouts to nail down the victory and send Millersville in to the championship series.
Game Thirteen (Game 1 of best-of-3 series)
Nova Southeastern (42-16) vs Millersville (53-5)
Friday, June 3rd, 3:00 p.m. Eastern
Live Stats
Live Video
So here we are. By virtue of both teams getting through the tournament unscathed to this point, our championship series begins on Friday and is a best-of-3 series to achieve a true double elimination format. Friday will feature a single game at 3 p.m., while championship Saturday will feature at least one game with a possibility of two. If the winner of Friday's game loses the first game on Saturday afternoon, they will go to a winner-take-all third game on Saturday evening.
This has set up pretty well for both teams. I anticipate that both teams will be coming back with their aces in this first game of the series. Alex Mateo (8-4, 3.11 ERA) and Brandon Miller (12-1, 1.46 ERA) both last pitched on Saturday the 28th, and should have nearly full rest. It is possible that since the game isn't a "must-win" for either team, though, that they will roll the dice with a lower-half of the rotation starting pitcher and save their best for when they absolutely need a victory, whether that be game two or three of the series.
No matter what, we are in for a treat for the next two days. We absolutely have two of the best teams in the country going in to battle with each other, and two teams which were clearly the class of the field in the national final tournament. I can't wait to watch!
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