Josh Beebe Outfield Marietta College

Mike Eisenberg Pitcher Marietta College

Tony Piconke Outfield Marietta College

Justin Steranka Third Base Marietta College

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Entering Tuesday's (May 30) NCAA Division III national championship game at Fox Cities Stadium, it had been 20 years since the Marietta College (Ohio) baseball team had taken the top honors back to Ohio.

Since then, the United States has been under the leadership of four different presidents. The Cold War ended, while music and fashion trends have come and gone.

And nine years ago in Norton, Mass., Marietta College's 2006 championship-game opponent, Wheaton College (Mass.), established its varsity baseball team. By that time, Marietta College had already played in 14 of its 18 championship finals and had won three national titles.

And Marietta College proved on Tuesday that experience counts in a championship game.

Behind two home runs by Justin Steranka and a 12-strikeout pitching performance by Mike Eisenberg, Marietta dominated Wheaton in a 7-2 championship-clinching triumph.

The Pioneers, who established themselves as a small-college baseball power under the late Don Schaly over a four-decade span, became just the second NCAA Division III program to claim four national titles (1981, 1983, 1986, 2006), joining Eastern Connecticut State University (1982, 1990, 1998, 2002) in the exclusive club.

"I think it's a testament to our program and the Marietta College baseball fraternity, but there's a major sense of relief right now,” said third-year head coach Brian Brewer, who was a player and assistant coach twice each on Pioneer national finals teams. “"This thing's been a long time coming, and a lot of people have expected it for a lot of years.”

Marietta College outscored its opponents 26-12 in winning its four tournament games, marking the second straight year that the national championship team has gone unbeaten through the five-day tournament.

Eisenberg delivered his second dominating outing on the mound to share tournament Co-Most Outstanding Player honors with his teammate, Steranka. Eisenberg struck out 12 Lyons on the afternoon while allowing just two walks and six hits in eight innings, giving him 23 strikeouts in his 16 innings of work in two starts in the finals.

"Nobody's more important than anybody else in our program, but he's our No. 1 pitcher,” Brewer said. “"He's performed like it all year and he performed like it today. He's just a super kid and a great competitor.”

"He pitched a really good game,” said Wheaton College's Pat O'Connor, who had a run-scoring single off of Eisenberg. "The slider was very effective today. It made us off-balance. A lot of us chased pitches in the dirt. The thing about his slider was that you couldn't pick up the spin until it broke, and by then, you're already swinging and you're just lunging on it. He pitched a great game. He deserved to win today.”

Eisenberg delivered a solid mix of pitches - fastball, curveball and slider - and went through the first three innings without giving up a hit. In the fourth inning, Wheaton College loaded the bases on a walk, fielding error and single, but a double-play grounder ended the threat.

"I was just trying to get the ball where it needed to go, and our defense was huge today again,” Eisenberg said. "That double play with the bases loaded - was probably the biggest play of the game, because that was a momentum-changer right there.”

Marietta College began its scoring barrage right after the double play, as all seven of its runs came via the long ball. The first was a Tony Piconke two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the fourth. In the fifth, Steranka hit a three-run shot to left-center, then followed that up an inning later with a two-run blast to deep center field.

"I went up there with the approach to hit the ball to the opposite field,” Piconke said of his homer. "He (Wheaton College pitcher Chris McDonough) ended up hanging a change-up up towards the middle of the plate, and I ended up putting a good swing on it and it went over.”

Steranka, who went 3-for-5 with five runs batted in on Tuesday, ended up claiming finals highs of three home runs and 11 runs batted in, while hitting .500 (9-for-18) in the Pioneers' four games, the second-highest batting average among all players in the tourney. Teammate Jarrod Klausman, also an All-Tournament Team honoree from Marietta College with Eisenberg, Steranka and Ryan Eschbaugh, hit .562 on the weekend (9-for-16).

"Normally, when Mike's (Eisenberg) on the mound - this has been the case all year - we don't need to put up a lot of runs,” Steranka said. "When we can put up seven, normally we feel pretty good as a team that we can win most of the time. What better way to come out than in a national championship game, to put up an offensive display like that?”

In addition to Steranka's 3-for-5 performance, Klausman, Piconke and Eschbaugh had two hits apiece.

Eisenberg allowed just one hit through his first six innings of work, but Wheaton College got on the scoreboard in the seventh. Two walks and run-scoring singles by O'Connor and Brandon Leonard produced two runs in the frame.

After a scoreless eighth inning, a leadoff single in the ninth by Wheaton College's Adam Laplante brought Brewer to the Marietta College mound to replace pitchers. Mike DeMark made his third appearance in the finals, claiming a strikeout while allowing one hit in the final inning.

Leonard led the Lyons with two hits, while Andy Koocher had a double, his 12th of the season.

"We had a great season, a great run through our conference tournament, a great run through the regional tournament, said Wheaton College head coach Eric Podbelski, the only head coach in the nine-year history of the Lyons' program. "These guys will always be the first team that took us to this point - and once we were here, we weren't just happy to be here. We got to the championship game. As hard as it is to reflect right now, I know that this team will always be remembered at Wheaton College, and I'll always remember them. It's amazing.”

McDonough, who earned a win with an eight-inning, five-strikeout performance against North Carolina Wesleyan College on Friday (May 26), lasted just four-and-a-third innings for the Lyons on Tuesday, striking out one while allowing 10 hits.

McDonough was one of two Wheaton College players to earn All-Tournament Team honors. Pitcher Louie Bernardini, who pitched eight-and-a-third innings with five strikeouts in a 5-4 win over the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on Sunday, was also named to the team.

Also named to the All-Tournament Team: pitcher Devin Drag and first baseman Patrick Ohail from Chapman University (Calif.), third baseman Robert Clark and pitcher Michael Vicaro from Montclair State University (N.J.), and utility player Jordan Zimmerman from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

By Don Stoner
Augsburg College Sports Information Director

Photography by Lehigh Photo