Box Score

Grand Chute, Wis. - Sunday’s (May 25) late winner's bracket match-up pitted a pair of 40-win teams – Johns Hopkins University (Md.) with the best offensive squad in the country and Trinity College (Conn.) with the nation’s best team earned run average.

In the end, it was Trinity College (44-0) that prevailed with an 8-5 victory over Johns Hopkins University (40-7) from Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. The win extended the Bantams’ win streak to 44 games and placed them in Tuesday’s (May 27) championship game of the double-elimination NCAA Division III Championship.

“It’s just one of those magical years, and everybody’s talking about the streak, and quite frankly, that wasn’t one of our goals,” said Trinity head coach Bill Decker. “Our goal was get through our conference tournament, get to a regional and try to have an opportunity to win a national championship.”

Never before has that opportunity been this close for the Bantams, who had an 0-4 record in two previous World Series appearances (2003 and 2005).

Trinity collected five base hits in the bottom of the first inning, including a two-run single by James Wood as the Bantams raced out to a 3-0 lead. Wood then launched a two-out solo home run off Johns Hopkins starting pitcher Brian Duddie in the third inning to help give Trinity a 4-1 advantage.

“I was struggling a little bit earlier,” said Wood. “I was just trying to get the bat on the ball. That’s all I was trying to do my first at bat, just drive it hard somewhere, find a hole. The next at bat I hit the home run. I let the first couple of pitches go by, but I saw [the ball] well and I just tried to get the barrel of the bat on it and it just went for me.”

While one streak continued, another ended Sunday. Blue Jays’ right fielder Brian Youchak, who had hit safely in 28 consecutive games, went 0-for-4 at the plate. Youchak, in what had seemed to be his last at-bat of the evening in the eighth inning, fell behind in the count on two quick strike calls before earning a base on balls.

Youchak’s walk initiated a late rally by Johns Hopkins following back-to-back RBI singles by Jonas Fester and Jon Solomon to make the score 6-4.

Trinity then caught a break when Tony Margve’s ground-rule double bounced over the right-centerfield wall. It was a ruling that forced the tying run back to third base, but allowed Fester to score.

The late surge caused Decker to make a move to the bullpen, bringing in Michael Regan who struck out the next batter to end the inning. Regan went on to retire the side in order in the top of the ninth to earn his second save of the season, but not before Trinity added two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth.

Trinity is on the verge of a completing the 2008 campaign unscathed, but would rather go home to Hartford, Conn. with a national championship trophy – a piece of hardware the Bantams can obtain with just one more victory on Tuesday.

“We just have a tremendous will to succeed within, said Decker. “As I’ve said to so many people, I just tip my cap to our kids, our players every single day. But our goal is to win it. Our goal is to win it in one game.”

Johns Hopkins returns to action at 3:30 p.m. on Monday (May 26), playing the winner between Monday's noon contest between Adrian College (Mich.) and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

By Luke LeNoble (Assistant Director, Athletic Media Relations, Marquette University)