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