Unranked BVU makes winners bracket final

Brad Blum's two-out bunt for a hit was part of a four-run sixth inning that gave Buena Vista an 8-4 lead.  Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com

By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. – Buena Vista, unranked entering the NCAA Tournament, will play in the winner’s bracket championship after the Beavers defeated Keystone 8-5 in a winner's bracket game at the 2011 Division III Baseball Championships.

Buena Vista, following the path blazed by Central Regional champion Illinois Wesleyan in 2010, will play Marietta on Sunday night in a game scheduled for 7 p.m. CT.  

The Beavers (34-16) broke a 4-all tie with four runs in the sixth inning and held on down the stretch for the win. Things fell apart for Keystone in the top of the sixth, which saw Buena Vista bat around and score four times. Rogers threw two wild pitches, Torres committed his second error of the game at third base and Straub dropped a foul pop-up. But the key play was a two-out bunt single by Brad Blum, who saw third baseman Gabe Torres playing back and took advantage for the RBI hit, bringing in the third run of the inning.

“That was him all the way,” Buena Vista coach Steve Eddie said after the game. “That’s something that if he ever sees the guy back, he can do whatever he wants. That’s kind of the nice thing about palying teams that don’t know us very well. It was a great bunt and all he had to do was get it past the pitcher.”

“The guy (pitcher Bob Rogers) struck me out the last at-bat, I just knew he kind of had my number,” Blum said. “I saw the third baseman back and a good chance to score a run, so I’d figured I’d give it a try.”

Blum, the team’s leading hitter entering the game at .379, finished 2-for-5 with the RBI and a run scored.

The teams came ready to swing the bats. The first three batters reached base for Buena Vista in the top of the first, as Blum doubled, Brock Yossi reached on an error by the shortstop and Michael Hoffman brought them around with a double for a 2-0 lead. Keystone answered in the bottom of the inning as Andrew Siano hit a 1-0 pitch over the left field wall for a home run, his seventh of the season.

The Beavers added two more in the top of the next frame. With one out, Andy Compton singled to right. He moved to third on a base hit by Dylan Colo and came home on a Bob Rogers wild pitch. After Tyler Case struck out looking, Blum hit a ball off the heel of Torres’ glove. Colo, running from second, never hesitated, making the turn at third and sprinting for the plate to give Buena Vista a 4-1 lead.

Keystone (37-11) put together a rally in the bottom of the fourth. Andy Vega posted a two-out single to right and Lance Ratchford followed with a base hit of his own to put runners on the corners. Austin Straub, the backup catcher getting the start against let-hander Michael Dirkx, got a base knock to bring in Vega and moved up to second on a throw through to the plate. Brian Del Rosso, who had three hits Friday night, delivered again with a two-run single to tie the game 4-4.

Keystone put another run on the board in the eighth on a walk, two singles and an error, but was unable to finish the comeback. The Giants had runners on second and third with one out and the tying run at the plate, but Ratchford struck out swinging, pinch-hitter Robert Santana got rung up on a questionable called third strike and Del Rosso was called out on a bang-bang play at first to end the inning.

Del Rosso’s grounder squirted past first baseman Ryan Scheetz, but Colo was there to back up the play and hit reliever Tyler Lefeber with an underhand toss for the final out.

“Sometime when you back a throw up it’s going to win a game for you,” Eddie said. "And who knows if that one was it. Dylan could have easily taken that play off, but I think we're all to the point where we're willing to do whatever it takes."

“I used to play with Scheetz back in HS,” Colo said. “When I see going that way, I just naturally went that way. I was just playing my position and it worked out for me.”

The snuffing of the rally appeared to deflate the Giants.

“It was tough,” said coach Jamie Shevchik. “All year long our guys have been very good on putting the ball in play, refusing to stike out, especially with runners in scoring position like that. If they’re going to give us a run, we’ve always been very good at just finding a way to get the job done. We didn’t get it done there. And then the bang-bang play at first … that took the wind out of our sails.”

Keystone comes back at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday to face Salisbury in an elimination game.

Michael Dirkx, the Elite 88 award winner from the NCAA for having the highest grade-point average among players in the championships round, got the start for the Beavers and improved to 5-2, going seven innings while giving up 11 hits and all five runs, three of which were earned. Rogers (6-2) took the loss for Keystone, pitching six innings and giving up six unearned runs among his eight total allowed. He struck out nine. Lefeber picked up the save for Buena Vista.