It took 19 hours and 35 minutes, but it time well-spent for Aurora University.

After a constant downpour halted their game Sunday (May 30) evening, the Spartans had to sleep on their 3-1 lead until noon on Monday (May 31). Aurora then held off a Rowan University rally and beat the Profs 7-4 in an elimination game at the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.

"You just have to play through it," Aurora left fielder Jason Smith said of the 17 hour, six minute, delay. "You can't worry about stuff you can't change."

The Spartans (28-18) advance to play George Fox University later on Monday.

Aurora built a 3-1 lead heading to the top of the fourth on Sunday evening. Brian Chelgren picked up a sacrifice fly in the first, John Hopkins belted a run-scoring double in the second and Smith had an RBI triple in the third. Rowan (41-8) got its lone run before the delay on Michael Rucci's first-inning solo homer.

After playing for nearly an hour, the rains came. The teams waited for about two hours before play was called for the evening. The teams returned Monday morning and started at 11:57 a.m. Rowan coach John Cole said the delay wasn't a factor for his squad.

"I think what affected us more was you saw a very good Rowan team against (the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater)," Cole said. "I think we did not handle the success of that ballgame. We almost dropped down emotionally after that ballgame."

Aurora got a gift run in the fourth to increase its lead to 4-1 in the fourth once play resumed. After relief pitcher Jim Gendaszek struck out the first two batters, he walked Hopkins, Dan Gregory reached on Gendaszek's error and Gendaszek then walked Jay Lavender to load the bases. Chelgren then launched a pop up on the infield, but a strong wind blowing out to right field played havoc with the ball and it dropped, allowing Hopkins to score.

Rowan had a chance to cut into the lead in the fifth, with the bases loaded with one out. Aurora starter Adam Hutten, who returned to pitch after starting the game on Sunday evening, got Irv McFarland to ground into a double play to end the inning.

Aurora added a run in the fifth to go up 5-1 when Smith tripled to start the frame and scored on a wild pitch. The Spartans dodged another bullet in the sixth when Matt Enuco grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Rowan tightened things up in the seventh by scoring three times to trim the lead to 5-4. Jimmy Starkey smacked a lead-off double and Brent Dempsey followed with a single. Roger Turley followed with a run-scoring single, and reliever Ryan Baird came on in relief of Hutten. After Bryan Ciconte was hit by a pitch, Chelgren and McFarland both picked up sacrifice flies to score the final two runs of the inning, but the Spartans avoided any more damage.

"That's how it's been all year," said Smith, who went 3-for-4, scored a run and drove in another. "It seems like now we can stop them. Earlier in the year, it would have been an eight-run inning instead of a three-run inning."

Aurora added a pair of big insurance runs in the eighth, with Chelgren delivering an RBI double to score Lavender, who had walked to start the inning. Pinch-hitter Jay Zimmerman then delivered an RBI single to put Aurora up 7-4.

Aurora pounded out 11 hits against the team that entered the tournament with the top earned run average in the nation.

"I know that stuff, but these guys don't know," Aurora head coach Shaun Neitzel said of the imposing statistic. "Nobody's here by accident. Everyone here can play, even us."