Scoring the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th inning, the University
of St. Thomas (Minn.) held on to claim a 4-3, extra-inning win over
Chapman University (Calif.) in an elimination game of the NCAA Division
III College World Series Monday evening at Fox Cities Stadium.
With the win, St. Thomas (36-12) is in the
driver's seat to claim its first national championship in baseball
in just its second-ever appearance in the College World Series. The
Tommies finished second in the nation last season. St. Thomas will
face Montclair State University (N.J. 40-7-1) on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.
Should the 4-0 Tommies win over the 3-1 Red Hawks in the 3:30 game,
St. Thomas will win the national championship. If Montclair State
wins, the two teams would play again at 7 p.m., with the winner claiming
the national crown.
"I think that the games have turned
out in our favor, of course, but we're not pounding the ball,"
said St. Thomas coach Dennis Denning. "But we're getting good
pitching, we're laying down some pretty good bunts and doing just
enough to outscore the other team. We could consider ourselves real
lucky."
Chapman finished 33-12 overall and was eliminated
with its second loss in the double-elimination format tournament.
St. Thomas put the eventual game-winning
run across in the top of the 10th, when leadoff hitter Brad Bonine
reached base on a single. He moved to second on an infield groundout,
then moved to third when a balk was called against Chapman relief
pitcher Eric Albright. A sacrifice fly to center field by freshman
Tom Carroll plated Bonine with the go-ahead run.
"I was just looking for something to
hit and the first thing I saw, I just put the bat on the ball,"
Carroll said. "I got it out to center, deep enough where we could
get in the run."
"This is his first at-bats in the region
and in the World Series," Denning said. "Tom is a freshman
and he hasn't played a lot, but we said, you're going to play one
game. He did and he drove in the game-winning RBI."
St. Thomas freshman pitcher Jon Marzlof,
making his first pitching appearance of the World Series, then shut
down the Panther side in order to secure the victory for the Tommies.
The Panthers tied the game with a ninth-inning
rally against Marzlof. Catcher Tony Serna, hitting eighth, was hit
by a pitch, and was relieved by pinch runner Josh Dickey. Dickey moved
around to third on a sacrifice bunt and hit by Brandon Maciel, and
then Adam Olow's sharp single up the middle brought in Dickey to tie
the game at 3-3 and send it to extra innings.
Down 2-0 early, the Tommies stormed back
to take the lead in the seventh inning by manufacturing runs from
the bottom of its order against Panther reliever Clint Blevens, while
taking advantage of Chapman errors. No. 7 hitter Tony Wolverton led
off the inning with a single, and pinch hitter Matt Buzzell walked.
John Frein laid down a bunt on the third-base side, but Albright's
throw from third sailed wide of first, and both Wolverton and Buzzell
scored to tie the game, with Frein ending up on third.
With one out, Jake Mauer then laid down another
bunt along the first-base line. The suicide squeeze ball hugged the
baseline and never rolled foul, allowing Frein to score the go-ahead
run.
Chapman opened the scoring in the third inning,
when a double to the left-center gap by Adam Olow drove in Brandon
Maciel. Chapman added another run in the fifth, when No. 9 hitter
Bobby Calderon doubled and came in to score on a single by Pat Stevens.
Neither starting pitcher figured in the final
decision. St. Thomas starter Adam Iten, making his first series appearance,
struck out one while allowing both Chapman runs. Meanwhile, Chapman
starter Erik Maurer, also pitching for the first time in the tournament,
threw six solid innings, allowing just five hits while striking out
four and not allowing a runner past second base.
Marzlof relieved Iten in the sixth and claimed
four strikeouts over the next five innings to pick up the win. Blevens
relieved Maurer in the seventh for the Panthers, and after allowing
the three runs in the seventh, kept the Tommies in check before being
relieved by Albright in the 10th frame.
"In a game like that, you can look at
a lot of little things that went that way or could have gone our way.
You can go if's and or but's all you want on those little things,
but that's baseball. Those things happen," said Chapman head
coach Rex Peters.
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