Taking advantage of seven errors to score six unearned runs, Chapman University (Calif.) dominated play Saturday afternoon, claiming a 9-1 victory over the University of Southern Maine in an NCAA Division III College World Series elimination game at Fox Cities Stadium.

Chapman, now 32-11 overall, advances to play the loser of Saturday’s championship-bracket game between the University of St. Thomas (Minn., 33-12) and the State University of New York-Cortland (36-7) in the double-elimination tournament. The elimination contest will be held on Sunday at 12 noon. Southern Maine finishes its season with a 35-14 record.

Adam Olow led the Chapman charge, going 4-for-4 at the plate, driving in two runs and scoring twice. He had a two-run double in the ninth, amazingly enough, Chapman’s only extra-base hit of the afternoon. Olow reached base each of the six times he was at the plate, as he also reached base twice on walks and stole two bases. Olow is Chapman’s career record-holder in runs (156), doubles (45) and stolen bases (42).

“We knew this game was important to us,” said Olow. “If we don’t win, we go home. I think everybody got mentally and physically prepared for this one. We knew what we had to do was get on base and things will happen. We showed that today. We got on base, they made errors and we capitalized on them. That’s what we needed to do, get those 90-foot victories, put the ball in play and make them make the mistake.”

Leadoff hitter Brandon Maciel had two hits and scored three runs, and Michael Caira, Alex Taylor and Tony Serna each had two hits and scored a run.

In all, Chapman pounded out 13 hits and had runners reach base in every inning against five Southern Maine pitchers. Chapman also took advantage of eight walks in the contest. Mark Russell (6-4), who allowed the first three Chapman runs, took the loss for the Huskies.

“Walks and errors are going to be the downfall for any baseball team,” said Southern Maine coach Ted Flaherty. 
“We didn’t make plays. Their pitcher shut us down, and that’s what leads to defeat. It was a tough time for it to happen, but this team really exceeded the expectations I had of it.”

“They certainly gave us some opportunities to score some runs,” said Chapman head coach Rex Peters. “We were one hit away from breaking that game open early. It finally came there in the eighth inning. I was a little disappointed in our execution offensively and being able to get the big hit. There are pitchers out there competing and nothing is going to come easy, especially in these weather conditions.”

Southern Maine scored its lone run of the game in the first inning, when leadoff hitter Shaun Richardson, who reached base on a double, was driven in on a Pat Toomey groundout.

Eric Hayden (7-0) pitched an impressive game for the Panthers, allowing just four hits – just two after the first inning -- in eight innings of work. Hayden struck out two Huskies and did not walk a batter. Eric Albright struck out two Panthers in the ninth inning in relief.

“He gave us eight strong innings. He gave us a chance to win. That’s really all his job is,” Peters said.

“For the most part, I started settling down a little bit, getting the ball down a little bit and I got a lot of help behind me,” Hayden said. “We made some good plays. They hit a few balls hard, right at people. We made the plays at the right times.”

The Chapman-Southern Maine matchup set NCAA history in one interesting statistic – the second-longest distance between schools, geographically, in Division III championship history. Chapman, located in Orange, Calif., is located 3,093 miles from Southern Maine, located in Gorham, Maine. The longest geographic distance between NCAA Division III baseball tournament teams occurred in the 1992 season, when Southern Maine faced California Lutheran. Gorham is located 3,138 miles from Cal Lutheran’s campus in Thousand Oaks, Calif.