Toms terrific on final Tuesday
By Jim Dixon
D3sports.com
GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- In a game for the ages, St. Thomas
walked off in the 12th inning with a 3-2 win over Wooster to win
the 2009 NCAA D-III Baseball Championship. St. Thomas became the
first team since 2003 to force a second championship game with a
6-4 win earlier in the day.
"We consider ourselves very fortunate and lucky as [Wooster] was
very good also," said St. Thomas coach Dennis Denning. "You want to
play in big games. We finished at the end of the year playing in
the biggest game of the year and won two."
In a tournament that seemed to be missing a memorable
head-to-head pitching performance, the championship game did not
disappoint. Mark Miller pitched a complete game for the Scots,
giving up 12 hits over 11-plus innings and look the loss. "For
three years [Miller] has done a phenomenal job and had a great
effort," said head coach Tim Pettorini. "Unfortunately we could not
score a few more runs for him."
Bryce Gapinski started the game for the Tommies, allowing the
Wooster runs on five hits. Brandon Stone took over in the sixth
inning and shut down a powerful Wooster offense, giving up three
hits over seven innings. "We talked about starting [Stone] but did
not think he could go six," said Denning. "We went with the lefty
to test their left-handers. He gave us five innings and did great.
Then we went with Brandon to go as far as he could until he got
into trouble." About Stone, Pettorini said, "We thought we would
get to him. He was just better than us today."
St. Thomas stuck first in the game as Louie Salmen, on board via
the free pass, scored on Tim Kahle's RBI single. Wooster came right
back to grab their first lead of the day. Stu Beath singled to
right field and jogged home on Matt Groezinger dinger.
The Tommies went back to the fundamentals to engineer a tie game
in the sixth. The tournament's Most Outstanding player, Matt Olson,
singled and moved to second when Brian Schmitz worked a walk. A
sacrifice bunt moved the batters up and a Roy Larson sacrifice fly
brought in the second run for St. Thomas.
"[To win] We had to get pretty good pitching," said Denning. "We
have a good defense and play small ball. We needed to score a
little at a time."
The score remained the same though regulation but there were
moments of drama. With two outs, Louie Salmen singled to left field
and Ben Wartman's double down the left field line put runners on
the corners. The Scots then walked Matt McQuillan intentionally to
load the bases. John Means was called upon to pinch hit and when
his ball went past the first baseman it looked like the game was
over. Wooster second baseman John Warren got to the ball and nipped
the runner at first in a spectacular play. "That was just a
phenomenal play that he made and with Mark covering the base. We
thought we could draw some momentum but their pitcher would not let
us. we just did not have an answer."
The issue was settled in the 12th inning. Olson singled to left
and was sacrificed into scoring position bringing up Dan Leslie.
Leslie had hit into two double plays in both his last at-bats but
redeemed himself when his ball skipped through the left side of the
infield untouched, bringing the second longest championship game to
an end. "I wanted to be up again," said Leslie. "I knew I would
come up in the bottom [of the inning] and looked for a pitch and
this time hit it away from an infielder."
In the first game of the day, St. Thomas with two runs in the
ninth inning defeated Wooster 6-4. Matt Schuld held Wooster to nine
hits, their fewest of the tournament, to get his second win in the
championship round.
St. Thomas broke through in the fourth inning. Dan Leslie singled
and moved to second on Larson's infield hit to third. Following a
sacrifice to move the batters up one base Denning called for the
suicide squeeze. Salmen executed the play for the Tommies' first
run of the game. Brady Field followed with an RBI single to give
the Tommies a 2-0 lead. Wooster would get on board in the next
inning when Michael DeBord scored on Shane Swearingen's double to
center field.
St. Thomas continued to put put runners on base and it was not
until the seventh that St. Thomas was able to add to their lead.
Matt Olson was hit by a pitch with two outs and moved to third on a
Brian Schmitz single. Leslie singled to bring in Olsen and Larson's
base hit to left scored Schmitz. Leslie strayed off second base at
the end of the play for the final putout of the inning.
Wooster made up their deficit in the eighth. Swearingen's home run
down the left field line started the scoring for the Scots. John
Warren singled and was moved to second on Karpen's walk. Two
batters later, Stu Beath's double to right center knotted the score
4-4.
McQuillan started the Toms' ninth inning rally. On by an error on
the third baseman, he moved to second on a sacrifice. Olson was hit
by a pitch setting the plate for Schmitz. Schmitz singled to right
to reclaim the lead and the second squeeze play of the day gave the
Toms their final run.
2009 All-Tournament Team
OF Stu Beath, Wooster
OF Sean Karpen, Wooster
1B John Lequia, Carthage
3B Dan Leslie, St. Thomas
OF Matt McQuillan, St. Thomas
P Mark Miller, Wooster
P Matt Schuld, St. Thomas
P Brandon Stone, St. Thomas
P/1B Greg Van Sickler, Shenandoah
3B Zack Vesco, Wooster
OF Matt Olson, St. Thomas - Most Outstanding
Player
