By Jim Dixon
D3sports.com

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- Wooster stayed unbeaten in two games with a 12-1 win over Kean. Wooster scored in six innings while Mark Miller pitched shutout seven innings for the Scot's. Wooster will face the winner of the St.Thomas/Shenandoah game later tonight while Kean falls to face Chapman in an elimination game.

"We knew we would have to play our best against them," said Wooster head coach Tim Pettorini. "We felt this was our best game of the year. I hope we have another in us tomorrow." Kean head coach Neil Ioviero agreed. "There wasn't much stopping them, we got beat by a better team."

Wooster got on board first as they built a 2-0 lead. In the first inning, John Warren singled and moved to third on Stu Beath's double down the right line. Warren then scored on on a Matt Groezinger sacrifice fly. The Scots added to their lead in the third on a Sean Karpen triple and Warren's sacrifice fly.

Wooster continued to add runs while keeping Kean off the boards. In the fourth, Shane Swearingen doubled and following a ground out, scored on a Karpen single to left field. Beath scored in the fifth on a lead off walk and Swearingen scored in the sixth on a hit batsman. The Scots got their first crocked number in the seventh. Luke Sutton's double plated Zack Vesco and Matthew Johnson for a 7-0 lead.

Kean mounted their biggest threat in the bottom of the seventh. Dave Zavistoski singled and D.J. Breckenridge walked. Ryan Gibbons single loaded the bases with two outs but Miller induced Michael Moceri to hit into an inning ending double play.

The Scots used an inning extending error in the eighth to add three more tallies to their total. Matt Groezinger, Matthew Pierce, and Vesco scored to increase Wooster's advantage to 10-0.

Lee Cavico hit a mammoth home run, his seventh of the year, to left center to spoil the shutout. Wooster finished out the scoring with four runs in the ninth inning on five singles and a walk.

"Up and down the line up everyone was smoking the ball," said Beath. "We are done after this week so why not have fun and play loose."

Zavistoski lead Kean's offense with a three-for-four day. Beath, Vasco, and Swearingen had three hits for the Scots.

Miller (11-1) allowed six hits in seven innings to get the win. Ryan Zamorsky (7-3) allowed the loss.

By Jim Dixon
D3sports.com

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- After Friday's lackluster day of baseball, Carthage and Trinity (Conn.) changed that in the first game on the second day of the 2009 NCAA D-III Baseball Championship. Carthage escaped from two bases-loaded jams and found the big hit in John Lequia's grand slam to advance in the losers bracket with a 10-1 win over Trinity. The loss ends Trinity's title defense and makes the Bantams the third team in three years to go 0-2 in Appleton the year after winning the national championship.

Both starting pitchers were in control through the first four innings as the Bantams' Derek Anderson and the Red Men's Jord Jaehne-Llanas matched goose eggs on the scoreboard.

Trinity had the advantage at the plate but were unable to find the clutch hit to break the tie. In the second inning, with runners on first and second with one out, Kevin Mortimer laced a single to right field. On the throw to the plate, the Bantams found their lead runner caught in a rundown and a ground out ended the threat. In the next inning, Trinity loaded the bases but Jaehne-Llanas got a strikeout to preserve the shutout. "Llanas being able to pitch out of bases-loaded situations kept us in the game." said Carthage head coach, Augie Schmidt.

In the fifth inning, Carthage broke through for a single tally to take the first lead of the game. John Lequia's groundout with the bases loaded brought home Tyler Eickmeyer.

Following a bases-loaded jam in the seventh, Carthage added to their lead. An Eichmeyer single was followed by an error and a hit batsman to load the bases with no outs. Conor O'Sullivan-Pierce replaced Anderson for the first out of the inning and was immediately relieved by James Ramsey. On Ramsey's first pitch Lequia hit the ball over the right field fence for a 5-0 lead. "We got the right guy up at the right time," said Schmidt. "Johnny got a good pitch and hit a home run. One guy picks us up and everyone follows in line. it is contagious."

Follow they did. Four batters after the home run, Tim Hansen sent a drive over the center fielder's head to the wall to plate two more runs. Eichmeyer then followed with a single. Both Carthage players scored on Joe Ferro's single to bring Carthage's lead to nine runs.

Trinity responded with a run of its own to break up the shutout as James Wood scored on an Carthage error. Carthage would add one more run on a Drew Roberts sacrifice fly to end the scoring.

Alex Rokicki led the Bantams offense with two hits. Four Carthage players had multiple-hit game as Ferro, Eichmeyer, Lequia and Chris Shannon had two hits apiece. Lequia led all players with five RBIs.

Jaehne-Llanas (9-2) allowed seven hits in eight innings for the win. Anderson (5-2) was tagged with the loss.

"In Division III especially, if you don't beat yourself, you're going to win a lot of ballgames."

That's how St. Thomas coach Dennis Denning put it late Saturday night after his Tommies turned three double plays and played error-free baseball in beating Shenandoah 16-5. Photo gallery.

The Tommies continue on to face fellow unbeaten Wooster, which crushed Kean 14-1 in Saturday's other winner's bracket game. Photo gallery.

The Tommies chased Hornets starter Josh Simons after the first three batters reached in the third inning, then opened up a 16-2 lead after six innings before coasting the rest of the way.

Mark Miller threw seven shutout innings in Wooster's win and Stu Beath, Zack Vesco and Shane Swearingen had three hits apiece for the Scots.

Division III baseball hasn't had a repeat champion in 30 years, and we'll have to wait at least one more year before we see another.

Trinity (Conn.) saw its title defense end the same way Kean's did in 2008 and the same way Marietta's did in 2007, with a two-and-out. The Bantams gave up eight runs in the seventh inning en route to a 10-1 loss to Carthage in a Saturday morning elimination game at Time Warner Cable Field in Grand Chute, Wis. Photo gallery.

The Red Men broke open a pitcher's duel in the bottom of the seventh inning when first baseman greeted reliever James Ramsey's first pitch by sending it over the right field fence for a grand slam. Before that hit, it had been a pitcher's duel, with each team stranding a lot of runners before Carthage took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth.

Farmingdale State was also eliminated from the championships on Saturday, as the Rams fell to Chapman 4-2. Matt Irsfeld threw a complete game, striking out seven. Photo gallery.

Championships toolbar: D3baseball.com All-American team | Live scores, video for Friday | Saturday's schedule | Jim Dixon's Championships preview

Live video for all championship round games is available through NCAA.com, and we'll have links for you for Saturday's games on the D3baseball.com scoreboard.

If you're unable to watch, we have links to live stats, audio when available, and updated scores. Jim Dixon and the D3baseball.com crew are also blogging on the Daily Dose during the games, for you to follow and comment. And we'll have postgame coverage as well.

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- St. Thomas exploded for five runs in the fifth inning and Matt Schuld threw a complete-game five-hitter as the Tommies defeated Chapman 9-1 in Friday's final opening-round game at Time Warner Cable Field.

The Tommies move on to face Shenandoah in a winner's bracket game Saturday evening, while Chapman plays Saturday afternoon against Farmingdale State in an elimination game.

St. Thomas got the scoring going early. Leadoff batter Matt McQuillan reached on a single to right and moved to third on a double down the left-field line by Matt Olson. Roy Larson brought the first run home with a sacrifice fly, and Dan Leslie knocked a grounder through the hole at third base to bring the second run home.

Chapman wasted an opportunity in the third inning. Joe Lehman led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Ryan Hall. But Ryan Prechtl popped up to second. Tommies starter Matt Schuld walked Ben Owens and John Semel to load the bases before getting Patrick Ohail to pop up to end the threat.

"I think I was a little pumped up at the beginning," Schuld said after the game. "As the game went on I found a little groove and started hitting my spots."

The Panthers also threatened in the fifth, as Hall reached on an error and advanced to second on a walk by Owens. With the heart of the order coming up, Tommies coach Dennis Denning visited the mound, and Schuld got the next hitter, Semel, to hit into a double play.

"He just came out to give everyone a little break," Schuld said. "There was a questionable pitch on a strike three call so he wanted to settle us down after that. He always seems to have the knack to know the right time to come out and settle us down."

St. Thomas answered in the bottom half of the fifth with its five-run rally. McQuillan got hit by a pitch and moved to second on an Olson single. Larson was retired on a comebacker and Brian Schmitz hit a sac fly to the warning track in left to bring McQuillan home. But St. Thomas added four more runs after two were out, as Taylor Rahm knocked in two with a single, Tom Wippler hit an RBI double and Louie Salmen added an RBI single for the final run.

It was Schuld's first appearance since his 19 innings pitched in the Midwest Regional. That regional started with his 12-inning outing in a game against UW-Stevens Point which the Tommies eventually won in 17. "The first three days my arm was pretty iffy and I just had to do a lot of cardio and ice every day," Schuld said of his recovery. "Today I was really happy with the way I felt. In fact, I might have been too strong."

Schuld threw approximately 110 pitches in Friday's game.

"That's better than 180. Hopefully we're playing Tuesday and I'll bounce back for that."

By Jim Dixon
D3sports.com

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- Two years ago Shenandoah coach Kevin Anderson and his assistants came to Appleton to evaluate other championship programs. "We saw every practice and every game and discovered that we did not have the number of players like other programs," said Anderson. "We were way behind but fortunately we have been able to attract some great character kids."

Shenandoah's transformed program brought a potent offense to the championship round and did not disappoint. The Hornets defeated the Farmingdale State 12-2 as they tallied double digit runs for the 20th time this season.

Greg Van Sickler kept the Rams off-balance all night with a complete game seven-hitter to record the win. "Van Sickler was consistently ahead and was getting outs with all three pitches," said Anderson. "The most important pitch for me is strike number one," said Van Sickler. "It really helps to baffle the hitters."

Shenandoah started the scoring in the first with a gift run by the Rams as the Farmingdale starter, Sean King, was unable to make it out of the inning allowing four walks and two stikeouts before being relieved by Chris Phelan.

Shenandoah kept scoring. Four singles and speed on the base paths gave the the Hornets a 3-0 lead after two innings. They added a single run aided by two Farmingdale State earrors to increase the lead to 4-0. A Scott Van Dusseldorp ground out with the bases loaded scored Shenandoah's fifth run in the fourth inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Rams scratched out two runs to get themselves in the game. A Ray Levan bases loaded single brought in the first Rams runs, One batter later, Frank Yera's single drove in Frank Ennis but the inning ended when Rich Gili was cut down at the plate by a strong throw from Senandoah's right fielder Jon Holcomb.

After a 1-2-3 fifth for both team, the Hornets scratched out another run on a Van Sickler single to regain the momentum of the game. Meanwhile Van Sickler continued to keep the Rams off the scoreboard.

The game result was finally settled in the eighth inning. The Hornets found that big inning they were missing all game, putting six runs on the board and putting the game out of reach. The big hit in the inning was Cory Nelson's two-run homer, Shenandoah's first extra base hit of the game.

Seven Hornets had hits in the game. Van Sickler and Scott Lambert collected three hits on the night. Van Sickler lead Shenandoah with three RBIs.

Mike Labrozzi was the only Farmingdale State player with a multiple hit game, going two-for-four. King look the loss for Farmingdale State

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- Kean scored four runs on six Trinity (Conn.) errors and recovered from a seventh-inning Bantam rally to win a sloppy opening-round game 8-5 at the Division III Baseball Championships.

Ryan Gibbons and Mike Mangianello knocked in a pair of runs apiece and D.J. Breckenridge scored twice as Kean (39-9) handed D3baseball.com Pitcher of the Year Jeremiah Bayer his first loss of the season.

Despite the win, Kean coach Neil Ioviero was less than impressed. "I think this was one of our top five worst games we played this year," he said afterward. "I don't think we were very good running the bases today. We gave too many opportunities for their offense. Offensively I think we ran ourselves out of innings big time. I don't think we laid off a lot of breaking balls that weren't strikes. We didn't have many strikeouts, but I thought the ones we did have, we gave away."

The Cougars had a runner picked off to end the fourth, ended the sixth inning on a caught stealing and had other baserunning mistakes masked by throwing errors by Trinity, which fell to 33-6.

Bayer labored through eight and a third innings, walking five and allowing 10 hits en route to four earned runs. Sean Killeen committed three of the errors and Bayer had one himself, leading to unearned runs in the eighth and ninth innings, following a three-run Trinity rally in the seventh.

"I felt we hung a guy out there to dry," said Trinity coach Bill Decker. "I guess that's what happens sometimes when you have some new players in the lineup, a couple of freshmen not battle-tested in this kind of venue. But it was more than them. We have some guys who should've made some plays."

Trinity struck first with an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning. After left field Jack Abbott led off the inning by beating out an infield single and stole second, he drew a throw back to second after going halfway on a fly ball. The throw from the cutoff man flew over the head of the second baseman, rolling all the way into the Kean bullpen and allowing Abbott to come around to score.

Bayer struggled with his control in the second inning, walking three batters, including Kean third baseman Nick Ramagli, who was trying to sacrifice himself. Dylan Laguna came in on a bases-loaded grounder to second to tie the game at 1-1 before Vinny Galya hit a soft liner into a double play at shortstop to end the inning. Kean added two more runs in the second on a pair of errors, a single and a double steal to take a 3-1 lead. But Bayer recovered to strike out Laguna and get a pair of grounders to short.

"Certainly from a defensive standpoint, we not only didn't throw we didn't catch either," Decker said. "Jeremiah pitched well enough to win. It's unusual for him to walk as many people as he did. I'm not down on him; he's been our guy all year. He's a competitor. With him on the mound we have to play a little differently."

Kean extended its lead to 4-1, then 6-2 with a pair of run in the top of the seventh thanks to a Dave Zavistoski double and singles from Breckenridge, Gibbons and D3baseball.com first-team All-American Michael Moceri. But Pedro Rivera, who battled through six inconsistent innings, walked the first two Trinity batters in the seventh before giving way to reliever Brandon Aich.

"I was upset, lost the zone a lot, gave up a lot of 4-0 walks," Rivera said. "Overall I wasn't too upset but I could bear down more."

Aich walked two more batters, sandwiched around a two-run single by right fielder James Wood as Trinity cut the lead to 6-5.

"What you want to do is expand leads, keep your bullpen fresh," Ioverio said. "When you have to go to your closer for the seventh, eighth and ninth, it has an effect later in the week."

But Aich settled down and retired six of the final seven batters in order for his 11th save.

"When we found out what region we were going to be playing we were very excited to be playing this game," Ioverio said. "If you're going to have a chance at this thing you have to beat the best team. I believe you have a really big deficit when you come here as the defending champ and I think a lot of emotion is going through you as the week goes on.

"When you come here without the target on your back you just focus on one game at a time."

Kean advances to face Wooster in Saturday's third game, scheduled for a 4:30 p.m. Central Time start. Trinity comes back for the 10 a.m. game against Carthage.