Box Score

Sunday’s late match-up pitted a pair of 40-win teams – Johns Hopkins University with the best offensive squad in the country, and Trinity College with the nation’s best team ERA -- and both teams unbeaten in the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.

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

“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-RBI single by James Wood as the Bantams raced out to a 3-0 lead. Wood then launched a two-out solo homerun off Johns Hopkins starting pitcher Brian Duddie in the third inning to help give Trinity a 4-1 advantage.

Duddie worked just three innings before a 22-minute rain delay and a surrendering a double by Chandler Barnard to lead off of the fourth inning.

“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 homerun. 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 night. 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, May 27.

“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 awaits the winner of Monday’s game 12 between UW-Whitewater and Adrian College scheduled for a noon start.

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