Box Score

Grand Chute, Wis. - Matt Benchener’s double down the right field line scored Tony Margve in the bottom of the 14th inning Friday (May 23) to deliver a 3-2 victory for Johns Hopkins University (Md.) over Adrian College (Mich.) in an opening round game of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

Benchener’s looping line drive ended the second-longest game in the history of the NCAA Division III finals.

“I joked with head coach (Bob Babb), it’s a good thing I didn’t get that bunt down,” said Benchener. “We’ve been in a lot of big situations like that this year, and I’ve been fortunate to be able to hit in a lot of those situations. I think the key is to focus on what you need to do right then. Try not to think about the situation or the fact that it’s the World Series or anything like that.”

Margve singled up the middle against Adrian reliever Ryan Domschott to start the 14th, and Benchener followed with the walk-off double.

“Fortunately he threw an outside fastball, and that’s kind of what I was looking for,” Benchener said.

Johns Hopkins (39-6) advances to play Chapman University (Calif.) (40-3) in a winner’s bracket game at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday (May 24). Adrian (34-12) faces Kean University (N.J.) (39-10) in an elimination game at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

“We just have to forget about today,” Adrian head coach Craig Rainey said. “We played a school that offensively is much better than us and we shut them down. We have to challenge our guys to stay in the tournament.”

Adrian got on the board with the help of an error in the top of the first. Alex Cowart reached on a two-out walk and went to second on an error on a failed pick-off attempt. Cowart then scored on Bobby Rickstad’s bloop single to right field.

Adrian made it 2-0 on Jake Cappelletty’s one-out solo homer in the fifth.

Johns Hopkins tied it in the bottom of the sixth with a pair of runs. Brian Youchak led off the inning with a single and Rob Pietroforte followed with a double. Todd Emr followed with a bloop single to right to score Youchak. Jonas Fester’s sacrifice fly then scored Pietroforte to tie the game at 2-2.

Both starting pitchers were outstanding.

Johns Hopkins starter Joe Zaccaria went nine innings and struck out a career-high 14. Ryan Kealy pitched the final five innings to pick up the win for the Blue Jays. He struck out five, walked one and allowed only one hit to improve to 6-1 on the season. The 19 strikeouts by the Blue Jays tied an NCAA Division III postseason record.

“The first inning I didn’t feel like I had my best stuff, and then I settled down a little bit,” Zaccaria said. “I was able to mix it up. I felt like being able to mix it up kept the hitters off-balance.”

Adrian starter Alex Webster went 10 innings, allowed nine hits, struck out five and didn’t walk a batter.

The Bulldogs looked like they might win it in the ninth. Cappelletty singled to start the inning, and Alexander Younce then reached on a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt. Cappelletty moved to third on the play. After Andrew Anderson lined out to center field, Todd Meyers flied out to right field.

Cappelletty tagged on the play, and attempted to score but was gunned down at the plate by Youchak to end the inning.

“We did not play a very good game,” Babb said. “We probably didn’t deserve to win today. We had opportunities to score and didn’t. We were able to win because our pitchers did a fantastic job. We got key strikeouts and we were a little lucky quite honestly but we’ll take it.”

By Joe Vanden Acker (Lawrence University Sports Information Director)