Box Score

Grand Chute, Wis. - Trinity College (Conn.) couldn’t make history on Tuesday (May 27), but the Bantams gladly took home a consolation prize – the national championship.

Trinity was foiled it its bid to be the first team to go undefeated and win a national title, but the Bantams pulled off a come-from-behind 5-4 win over Johns Hopkins University (Md.) in the championship game of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship game held at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

Reserve third baseman Guy Gogliettino drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth to lift Trinity (45-1) to its first NCAA Division III team championship in any sport.

“We just met our final goal. I know everybody’s talking about this undefeated gig that we really didn’t talk about. It just kind of happened,” said Trinity head coach Bill Decker, who saw his team fall 4-3 earlier Tuesday to force a second title game.

“These were two great games today. At the end of the day, this was a message we’ve done for a long time, we talk about grinding it out, doing whatever it takes to win, have a will to just kind of hang in there.”

The game was tied 3-3 heading into the ninth inning when Johns Hopkins catcher Tony Margve led off the frame with a single. Jon Solomon followed with another single, and the Blue Jays (42-8) had runners at the corners.

After a short fly out, Matt Benchener’s sacrifice fly scored Margve to put the Blue Jays up 4-3.

The Bantams got a one-out infield single from Kent Graham to get the winning rally started in the bottom of the ninth. James Wood followed with a single through the right side to put runners at the corners.

After Wood stole second, Thomas DiBenedetto struck out. Blue Jays reliever Matt Wiegand then intentionally walked Chandler Barnard to load the bases with two outs.

“The first thing I said to (Wiegand), ‘If we choose to put this kid on intentionally, that won’t affect you? You’ll be able to throw strikes, correct?’ And he said yes,” Johns Hopkins head coach Bob Babb said. “You can’t worry about the negatives. You have to play the game with what you see, and that kid (Barnard) had given us trouble.”

Barnard went 3-for-4 with two runs scored in the title game.

“I didn’t want (Barnard) to beat us,” Babb said. “I thought we had a better chance to get the next guy out. It just didn’t work out. “

Wiegand then faced Matt Sullivan and his 3-2 pitch just missed inside to force in Graham and tie the game at 4-4.

“(Home plate umpire Todd Olinger) called it a ball,” Margve said. “There’s nothing we can do about that. It shouldn’t have come down to that. You can’t change that now.”

That brought Gogliettino to the plate for his first at-bat of the tournament. The count went to 2-2 when Gogliettino fouled off six consecutive pitches.

“I knew a walk would do it, and I was grinding it out,” Gogliettino said. “I was seeing the ball well, and I was confident in myself. I know where my zone is.”

Wiegand then missed up and in with the next two pitches to walk Gogliettino and set off the celebration when Wood crossed the plate with the winning run.

“This is awesome. I’m speechless,” Gogliettino said. “That was my opportunity. I was just trying to make the best of it.”

Decker said the coaches had talked all day about quality at-bats, and Trinity got two when it counted the most.

“You talk about grinding out an at-bat, being patient and staying within yourself,” Decker said. “It just happened. Every foul ball that Guy hit I kept on stepping back from the field. I just kind of took it all in at the end. It was just a thrill to watch these guys.”

With Gogliettino fouling pitches off the opposite way, Margve kept calling for fastballs in the final at-bat.

“It was at the point he was a little behind the fastball, and we had struggled getting off-speed pitches over the plate,” Margve said. “So it was either he was going to beat us or we were going to beat him. Unfortunately, our pitcher lost the battle, but we knew what we had to do.”

A wild eighth inning saw Johns Hopkins take the lead and Trinity nearly take the lead back.

Nate Adelman’s one-out single got Johns Hopkins going in the top half of the inning. After a ground out moved the runner to second, Brian Youchak’s ground ball was misplayed by Ryan Piacentini to keep the inning alive.

Rob Pietroforte followed with a triple down the right field line to score both runners and put the Blue Jays up 3-2.

Trinity battled back in the bottom of the eighth to tie it, but a sparkling defensive play kept the Bantams from taking the lead.

DiBenedetto led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Barnard singled to center, but Pietroforte threw DiBenedetto out at the plate to keep Johns Hopkins ahead.

Sullivan then drew a walk before pinch-hitter Matt Stafford’s line drive to center brought Barnard around to tie the game at 3-3. Wiegand came in and hit Jack Abbott, but he got Piacentini to fly out to end the inning.

Trinity jumped on the board with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second.

Barnard got things started with a one-out single, and Sullivan belted a triple in the left-center field gap to score the game’s first run. Tim Bourdon followed with a sacrifice fly to score Sullivan and the Bantams led 2-0.

Johns Hopkins cut that lead in half when Benchener led off the third with a solo homer down the left field line to make it 2-1.