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John Buckner
Third Baseman
Anderson University
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Travis Davis
First Baseman
Anderson University |
Kevin
Nichols
Pitcher
Anderson University |
Clint Williams
Pitcher
Anderson University |
Quality pitching and clutch hitting has Anderson
University one game away from the title game
of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship
Series.
The Ravens defeated defending national champion
Eastern Connecticut State University 3-2 Saturday
in a winners’ bracket game at Fox Cities
Stadium. Anderson (35-14) advances to play
either Chapman University or Christopher Newport
University in a winners’ bracket game
Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Connecticut (42-8)
drops into the elimination bracket and will
play the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh at
noon on Sunday.
“We just kept hanging in there,”
Anderson head coach Don Brandon said. “That’s
all I can say. It was a tough game to win.”
Anderson pitchers Kevin Nichols and Clint
Williams combined to limit the Warriors to
two hits. Nichols, who improved to 6-3 on
the season, went 6 2/3 innings, gave up two
hits, struck out three and walked eight. Williams
pitched a perfect 2 1/3 innings, striking
out four in the process, to get the save.
“I think we had a great job of pitching.
… We were able to keep them under control,”
said Brandon, referring to the Warriors’
running game. “Had we let the tiger
out of the bag by not pitching well, they
would have been tough to deal with.”
Anderson jumped on top in the top of the first.
Travis Davis’ sacrifice fly scored Brent
Hodges, who had walked to start the game,
and Anderson led 1-0.
The Warriors came back to tie the game in
the bottom of the second. An error on right
fielder Duke Behr allowed Marc Garofalo to
reach and he later scored on Greg Sullivan’s
groundout to knot the score at 1-1.
Anderson came right back in the top of the
third to take a 2-1 advantage. John Buckner
led off with a double, and he later scored
on Davis’ groundout.
Eastern Connecticut fought back to tie the
game in the bottom of the fifth. Morgan Thompson
drew a walk to lead off the inning, advanced
on a walk and a flyout, and scored on Dwight
Wildman’s sacrifice fly.
Anderson finally grabbed the lead for good
in the top of the seventh. With two outs,
Buckner singled and went to second on a wild
pitch. Davis then came up with possibly the
biggest hit of his college career. He belted
a 3-1 fastball down the right field line,
and Buckner scored to put the Ravens up 3-2.
“That’s what you play for,”
said Davis, who finished the day 1-for-3 with
three RBI. “You get the fastball count,
and that’s what you look for.”
Williams came on in relief in the bottom of
the seventh, and he retired the next seven
batters in order to seal the win for Anderson.
“They out-gutted us. They out-willed
us,” Eastern Connecticut head coach
Bill Holowaty said.
“We didn’t pull the trigger. We
didn’t do what we had to do. It’s
aggravating. It’s frustrating.”
Written By Joe Vanden Acker
Photos By Lehigh Photo |
