George Fox University pitcher Scott Hyde figured he might be able to go five innings. Bruins head coach Pat Bailey thought he could squeeze three innings out of his ace.

Hyde proved both himself and his coach wrong Tuesday (June 1) in the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship Game at Fox Cities Stadium. Hyde went the distance, pitching a five-hit gem to lead Bruins to a 6-3 victory over Eastern Connecticut State University.

"I'm not sure what it was physically that kept me going," said Hyde, who had thrown 11 innings in the tournament, including two on Monday, before taking the hill for all nine innings in the title game. "My arm just kept going for me."

When asked at what point during the game he tired during the game, Hyde replied, "From the start to the end."

It certainly didn't look that way. Hyde, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after posting a 3-0 record, threw 140 pitches but got stronger as the day went along. He struck out 13 and walked two and retired 16 of the next 17 batters after Eastern Connecticut (43-11) scored its final run of the game in the third inning.

George Fox (40-10) won the title in its first trip to the finals, becoming only the fourth team to accomplish that feat and the first since Ramapo did it in 1984.

The Bruins could have wrapped up the title in the first game on Tuesday, but Eastern Connecticut rallied from a 6-1 deficit to win 12-7 and force a second title game.

Hyde's stunning performance almost never was. George Fox coach Pat Bailey, now desperately short on pitching, was going to start freshman Zach Wilson, who had thrown only two innings all season. When Bailey saw that Eastern Connecticut had All-American Ryan DiPietro as its starter, he changed his mind and went with Hyde.

"It's like a boxing match, punch-counterpunch," Bailey said. "If they were going to start DiPietro, we were going to start Scott. We thought we would get three innings out of him."

George Fox got to DiPietro early by scoring a pair of runs in the top of the second. Derrick Jones belted a double to score Greg Dombek to get the Bruins on the board. A two-out throwing error by the shortstop on Tye Tinner's ground ball allowed Jones to score.

The Warriors answered with two runs of their own in bottom of the second. After Marc Garofalo singled, Randy Re tripled to score Garofalo. Zach Mehrbach followed with a sacrifice fly and the game was tied at 2-2.

George Fox pulled back on top in the third. Stephen Donohue led off with a single and moved to second on a bunt. After a passed ball moved him to third, Donohue scored on Dombek's single to left field.

Eastern Connecticut answered again, as Dwight Wildman hit a monster homer to dead center field for the second consecutive day to tie the game at 3-3.

"I thought after I hit the (home run) today, we could get something started," Wildman said. "I don't know if it motivated (Hyde) or whatever, but he just pitched better."

Hyde struck out five of the next seven batters on his way to retiring 18 of the final 20 batters.

"He did an awesome job," Eastern Connecticut coach Bill Holowaty said of Hyde. "He was the difference in the ballgame. When he got in situations, he got even tougher. He didn't break. It was a classic battle, and their kid out-pitched our kid."

Dombek, George Fox's catcher who went 3-for-5, said he couldn't tell the difference between Hyde in the title game as opposed to any other day.

"It was like he was pitching on five days' rest," Dombek said.

Re figured the Warriors would be able to finally get to Hyde in the later innings.

"I thought he would have gotten weaker in the eighth and ninth innings," Re said. "His curveball stayed the same and his fastball stayed the same."

George Fox took the lead for good in the fourth inning with two more runs. Jones singled to start the inning and stole second. Tinner laid down a sacrifice bunt, but DiPietro fielded the ball and threw late to third and all hands were safe.

Drew Johnson then grounded out to third and Jones took off for home. Warriors first baseman Mehrbach threw home, but his throw was in the dirt and Jones scored. Braniff later singled down the right field line and that allowed Tinner to score.

Nursing a 5-3 lead, the Bruins added a big insurance run in the seventh. Jones blasted a two-out solo homer off the scoreboard in left-center field against reliever Jeremy Hall. Jones went 4-for-5 with three runs scored and two runs batted in.

"I wanted to find out some way to help Scotty," Jones said of his pitcher. "I wanted to hit a line drive, but I got a little more than that."

Hyde won George Fox's tournament opener, an 8-3 victory over Salisbury. He got the win in the Bruins' 9-8 victory over Eastern Connecticut State in a winner's bracket game on Monday by tossing two innings of relief.