RPI, now 33-9 on the season, advances to play Eastern Connecticut State University in a winner’s bracket game on Saturday at 7:45 p.m. RPI has won its last five games. Lakeland, which saw its eight-game winning streak snapped to fall to 33-15-1 overall, will face Concordia University at Austin (Texas) in an elimination game on Saturday at 1:15 p.m.

Teeter, a first-team All-American and Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association Player of the Year, allowed just two hits and only seven Lakeland base runners in the game, netting six of his nine strikeouts in the first five innings en route to his sixth complete-game of the season. Lakeland stranded five runners.

"In the early innings, a couple of their guys were swinging at that high pitch. I just stayed up there until they laid off it and then worked them in and out," Teeter said. "I consider myself more of a power pitcher. If I don’t hit my spots, I don’t worry about it because I’m confident in my defense."

Teeter kept the Muskies hitless until the sixth inning, when Chris Thousand was hit by a pitch and scored on a double to left-center by Matt Frelich.

"He (Teeter) just battles the whole way," said RPI head coach Karl Steffen. "He’s a great athlete. He can swing the bat too, as we saw tonight. He battles tooth and nail, he give us everything."

Rensselaer scored all the runs it would need in the second inning. Matt Faraone led off the inning with a double to the left-center gap, and came around to score on a two-out double by Pat Hughes, also to left-center. Teeter then singled to center to drive in Hughes.

The Red Hawks overcame a solid pitching performance by Lakeland’s Steve Plucinski, who pitched a seven-hitter, striking out three in his sixth complete-game of the season. RPI stranded six runners in the game.

"We wasted a great pitching performance by Plu (Plucinski)," said Lakeland head coach John Weber. "He’s a third-team All-American, and tonight he showed why. He kept us in the ballgame.

"The only disappointment I have is that this is our kind of game. Our game is pitching and defense, and we let this one get away."

Attendance at the tournament climbed to a record high, aided by the presence of two Wisconsin teams in the event. The final event of Friday’s four-game set drew 1,592 fans, the most to see an NCAA tournament game at Fox Cities Stadium since the park began hosting the Division III Championship Series three years ago.

Written By Don Stoner
Photos By Lehigh Photo