By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- Chapman ran wild on Kean starter Joe Bartlinski before Ryan Prechtl chased him with a two-run bomb as the Panthers defeated the Cougars 7-5 in an elimination game on Sunday afternoon at the Division III baseball championships.

John Semel closed the door, striking out four and allowing one run in three innings for his ninth save.

Chapman got on the board in the bottom of the second as second baseman Tyler Hadzinsky reached with a two-out single and came around on a double off the left-center field wall by catcher Joe Lehman. The Panthers got another two-out run in the fourth when Hadzinsky singled, stole second and third and came home on a throwing error by Kean catcher Mike Manganiello. A third two-out run in the fifth inning, started by a single and a stolen base from Semel, gave Chapman a 3-0 lead.

"With two outs I'm just looking to get on, not looking too much," said Semel, who started in left field and had three hits in five at-bats. "I'm just looking for a pitch I can hit. I was just seeing it well from Bartlinski."

"If we get a little more concentration on defense and on the mound, we get those," said Kean coach Neil Ioverio.

Kean answered in the bottom half of the inning, as the Cougars (39-11) got their first three batters aboard, loading the bases with nobody out. After third baseman Dave Zavistoski popped out on a ball Hadzinsky made a nice, over-the-shoulder catch on, DH D.J. Breckenridge bounced a ball through the middle to score two runs, cutting the lead to 3-2. Shortstop Mike Diaz singled through the hole into left field to put runners at the corners. Mike Moceri knocked Chapman starter Matt Luzar from the box with another two-run single, giving the Cougars a 4-3 lead.

Ben Levitt relieved Luzar and got cleanup hitter Dylan Laguna to hit a flare to the right side that Hadzisnky bobble before catching. Diaz appeared to tag and leave the base after the ball was first touched, in accordance with the rules, and scored. But on appeal, third base umpire Carlos Guzman called Diaz out for leaving early.

"My first reaction off the bat was I kind of froze but I definitely went back to tag," said Diaz, a junior shortstop. "I guess the umpire missed the call. It was definitely a tough call in a big spot."

"My initial reaction was to find out if he knew the ball was touched and knocked back in the air again," Ioverio said. "The explanation I got was when the ball was initially touched, Michael was heading toward the plate and then on his way back.

"One thing I know is he went back to touch the base. ... His answer was he didn't have him going back at all. In hindsight I guess I could've protested. I don't know what that would have accomplished."

Halston Barcelo led off the top of the sixth inning with a walk and was sacrificed to second before Lehman knocked him home with a single to center field. After Ryan Hall reached on a fielder's choice, Prechtl chased Bartlinski (7-4) with a blast down the left field line.

"I was just looking for something in the zone," said Prechtl, who was 0-for-2 with a walk before his home run. "Early on in the game he was kind of working backwards, throwing offspeed pitches when he was behind in the count. He ended up coming changeup."

Bartlinski finished the game allowing six runs, five earned in five and two-thirds innings. Chapman was 4-for-4 on stolen base attempts on the afternoon.

"I don't allow them to be super quick to the plate," Ioverio said, preferring his pitchers avoid using a slide step to keep runners close. "But at the same time you can still be effective by varying the looks and the holds and the timings throughout the course of the game.

"You're at a deficit either way. If you make guys rush to the plate and you get quick with your feet on the mound you risk ... affecting the pitcher's delivery too much and takes something off him while he's out there."

"We wanted to be aggressive," Chapman coach Tom Tereschuk said. "We thought if we had the right opportunities to go with the right runners on base we were going to go. We had some situations where we had a good jump and were able to take a base. Fortunately it worked for us."

Kean got the tying run to first base twice in the bottom of the ninth but was unable to get any further as Semel struck out Moceri and got Laguna to ground to short to end the game.

In the end, it was a rare well-played, close game at a championships that has been marked by blowouts and errors.

"This was a great season," said Moceri, a senior who has played in all three of Kean's trips to Appleton. "All the injuries that we had, to get here again was great. It would've been good to win it, but getting here we accomplished a lot this weekend. A little luck here or there, a call here or there, we might be playing tomorrow."

"You have two of the very best programs in the nation playing against each other, on a day where both of us are licking our wounds," Ioverio said. "It makes for a different kind of matchup than other games. We have mutual respect on both sides."