GRAND CHUTE, Wis. - Kevin Tomasiewicz was ready to do whatever it took to help his University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team make school history on Sunday.

     Even after throwing eight innings to earn the victory in Friday's tournament-opening victory over Trinity College, he knew he was ready to go when called on to come out of the bullpen against the College of Wooster late on Sunday night.

     "I could have pitched yesterday, honestly. My arm didn't hurt one bit today," said Tomasiewicz, who pitched two innings of one-hit, scoreless relief to pick up his first save of the season in Whitewater's 10-7 win over Wooster in a winner's bracket game of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championships at Fox Cities Stadium.

     And now, with a day of rest thanks to Sunday's win, he knows he'll be ready to go as his Warhawks enter unfamiliar territory by being in the driver's seat in pursuit of their first national title.

     Whitewater (44-7) advanced to Tuesday's national championship game for the first time in school history. The Warhawks are able to skip the two elimination contests on Monday and advance directly to Tuesday's title game at 1 p.m., facing the survivor of Monday's play. Monday's first game, at noon, will feature Wartburg College (37-10) against the State University of New York-Cortland (41-8-1). The winner of that game will face Wooster (39-8) at 3:30 p.m.

     As the only unbeaten team left in the double-elimination tournament, Whitewater has the advantage of only having to win one game on Tuesday to claim the national title. The survivor of Monday's play would have to beat Whitewater twice - at 1 p.m. and in the "if-necessary" game at 4:30 p.m. - to claim the crown.

     "Playing less games in a format like that is always advantageous," said Whitewater coach John Vodenlich. "So I think as much as the rest will help to freshen us up, I think also it will save our pitching, and that's always a good thing."

     The third game of the day began late, at 10:34 p.m. on Sunday, thanks to weather delays in the first game and an NCAA Division III championships-record 16-inning game in the prior contest. The game ended at 1:35 a.m., marking the second-latest-ending game in the six years of championships history at Fox Cities Stadium.

     Wooster has become accustomed to late games in this year's tournament. The Fighting Scots started their tournament-opening game against Cortland State on Friday at 10:52 p.m., ending early Saturday morning at 1:45 a.m.; their second game against Rowan University started at 8:23 p.m. Saturday and ended at 11:05 p.m. They will start in the daytime for the first time in the tournament in Monday's 3:30 p.m. game against the Wartburg/Cortland State winner.

     "I'd like to have had a day off, I'll tell you that," Wooster coach Tom Pettorini said. "Our guys are kind of beat up, playing as late as it's been. I'm a lot older than these guys, but I know how wound up I am and how long it takes me to get to sleep. I know it's got to be tough on these guys. It would have been nice to have a day off, but I promise you, we'll show great character tomorrow and we'll come out and play very hard."

     Freshman Mike Jacobson got the start for the Warhawks and threw five innings, striking out three while walking four. While he allowed nine hits and seven runs, just four of the runs were earned. Andrew Keller pitched two innings of scoreless relief, allowing just two hits, and Tomasiewicz pitched the final two innings, striking out two while allowing just one hit.

     "Everybody all year has been saying our pitching has been horrible besides Greg (Reinhard) and I," Tomasiewicz said. "Tonight, Jacobsen stepped up. He's a freshman and he's in his third start of the year and it's in the World Series. He came through and half the runs he gave up were unearned. He did a great job. Keller came in and did a good job. They were starting to creep back into the game. I knew that if we got one zero on the board, they were mentally done. I came out there, pitched well, got a couple of guys to strike out and that kind of shattered their confidence a little bit. Then we got to the ninth and got them out."

     Eddie Adamson went 3-for-5 to lead the Warhawks, while Eric Baldwin, Aaron Guibault, Aaron Soto and Nicholas Teach had two hits each as part of Whitewater's 13-hit attack. Baldwin had a double.

     Dean Palombaro had three hits, including a double, for Wooster, while Jake Frank, Pat Christensen and Ross Yoder had two hits apiece.

     Reilly Enos lasted just two innings in his start for Wooster, with Kyle Rawlings taking the loss with five innings of relief, striking out nine while walking only one. Brett Glavan pitched an inning in relief.

     Wooster took an early lead in the first inning, taking advantage of two Whitewater errors. Shaun Swearingen scored on a sacrifice fly by Jake Frank. But Whitewater answered in the bottom of the inning, as a two-out single by Adamson scored Dan Gnatzig.

     Wooster took the lead in the third inning, as Kurt Kapferer drove home Swearingen on a single to center field. But the Warhawks answered again with two runs in the bottom of the frame, as a Guilbault single drove in Gnatzing and Baldwin.

     Wooster's Rob Romick singled and later scored after a throwing error to tie the game at 3-3 in the top of the fourth.

     In the Whitewater fourth, Teach reached base on a single, and Ross Klawitter was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second with nobody out. A fielding error loaded the bases, and a bases-loaded walk brought Teach home with the go-ahead run. A single by Guilbault, combined with a throwing error, cleared the bases to put the Warhawks ahead 7-3. Two more runs came across, after a single by Soto and a suicide squeeze bunt by Jeff Newcomer, as 10 batters reached base in the inning.

     Wooster cut into the lead in the fifth, as Frank walked, Christensen doubled down the left-field line, and Frank scored on a groundout. In the sixth, Dean Palombaro led off the inning with a double to deep left, and a Yoder single put runners at the corners with nobody out. Division III National Player of the Year Luke Ullman then responded with a three-run homer to left-center to cut the lead to 9-7.

     Wooster put two runners on the bases in the seventh and loaded the bases on a single by Yoder. The lead runner was caught at home as result of a wild pitch, and a foul out ended the inning, keeping the Scots off the board.

     In the eighth, a Baldwin double plated Gnatzig with the final run for the Warhawks.

Written By Don Stoner
Augsburg College Sports Information Director

Photos By Lehigh Photo