Box Score

Grand Chute, Wis. - The name Adrian evokes visions of one of the great fight films of all-time.

During an elimination game Saturday (May 24) at the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium, Adrian College (Mich.) (35-12) delivered a Rocky-esque underdog victory with a 7-6 win in 12 innings over defending national champion Kean University (N.J.) (39-11).

Adrian now advances to face the loser of Linfield College (Ore.) and Trinity College (Conn.) at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday (May 25).

The loss eliminates Kean, which went 4-0 en route to the crown at the 2007 World Series, and prevents the first repeat title bid since Rowan University (N.J.) in 1978-79. Adrian also avoided becoming the first team in World Series history to lose two extra-inning games after Thursday’s 3-2 decision in 14 innings against Johns Hopkins University (Md.).

Adrian head coach Craig Rainey commented on his team’s effort, “We aren’t the most outgoing or rah-rah team in the dugout, but these guys always go out and compete, so I wasn’t worried about our ability to bounce back from a tough loss yesterday.”

The knockout punch in extra innings was delivered by Bulldogs shortstop Todd Meyers, as his low liner to short came in and out of the glove of Kean shortstop Maikel De La Rosa, allowing Ross Tonyan to score the winning run from third.

“With one out and guys at first and third, I was just trying to lift the ball in the air,” said Meyers. “He (Brandon Haich) started me off with a couple of sliders and I thought he would come back with another one. He did and I was able to hit it pretty well up the middle.”

The winning run was setup by an unlikely hero, as first basemen Nick Sarkissian, who entered the game as a defensive replacement in the 11th and entered with just four hits on the season, led off the 12th with a line drive single up the middle. Tonyan pinch-ran for Sarkissian, moved to second on Alexander Younce’s sacrifice bunt and then to third on Andrew Anderson’s single to left before ending the game on Meyers’ shot.

“I hadn’t seen live pitching since my last at-bat in a junior varsity game in April, so when I got up there I just wanted to see a few pitches. I tried to hit a fastball out of the park, but coach settled me down and told me to move up in the box and try to take the slider up the middle before it broke and I was able to do that,” said Sarkissian.

Nick Vandike was sterling in relief for Adrian, as the junior righty came on in the fifth inning and did not allow a hit until a slow roller up the middle in the top of the 11th. The hit was his lone blemish en route to the win, as he pitched eight innings of one-hit ball with two walks and four strikeouts.

“I was just trying to keep the team in the game, because I knew our offense would come thorough eventually if we could keep it close,” Vandike said. “I tried to keep the ball down and keep them off-balance. Our pitching coach Gordie Thiesen called a great game.”

In Hollywood fashion, Adrian appeared to be down and out early as Kean jumped to a 5-0 lead and scored at least a run in each of the first five frames. The Bulldogs grinded their way back into the game behind five two-out run-scoring hits, including Meyers’ three-run double to the left field gap in the fourth inning that cut Kean’s lead to 5-4 and swung the game’s momentum.

De La Rosa drove in a run in the second inning with a bunt single and two more runs on a single in the fourth for Kean. Eric Ammirata’s first inning run-scoring single and Michael Moceri’s sacrifice fly in the third allowed Kean to build its 5-0 lead.

Kean added a single run in the fifth inning to go up 6-4, but Adrian answered with a run in the sixth and then tied the game at 6-6 on Brian Billius’ (4-5, 2 runs) run-scoring single in the seventh inning.

It wasn’t how Kean head coach Neil Ioviero scripted his team’s World Series return, but the coach left with head held high.

“Sometimes when you lose, your really win and that is what happened to us, because we saw the tremendous character that our team has,” Ioviero said. “This is not a disappointment, it is a stepping stone for our program. Getting back to the World Series is such an accomplishment, our guys should be so proud.”

By: Matt Troha (Midwest Conference Sports Information Director)