Two teams go home from the D3 baseball championship
And my sentimental rooting interest is gone
College baseball postseasons can be cruel. Teams play around 50 games and get to the championship series and then can find themselves going back home with their season over in just two days.
Two teams got sent home from Eastlake, Ohio on Saturday. One was my brother Jim’s alma mater, Pomona (competing as Pomona-Pitzer) and the other was Randolph-Macon.1
Pomona-Pitzer had to play top seed Endicott in an elmination game that started at 7 am Pacific Time. The Sagehens did not seem to mind the early start as they jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the fourth inning. Two events in the fifth inning ended up being crucial.
In the top of the 5th, Pomona-Pitzer loaded the bases with two outs and were threatening to blow the game open. Endicott coach Byran Haley brought in his closer, Evan Scully to face Sagehen second baseman William Kinney. Scully got a strikeout to keep the game close.
In the bottom of the fifth, the first two Gulls hitters reached base. Cleanup hitter Danny McDougall popped up to second. The umpires called the infield fly rule. But, the runner on second, Dylan Pacheco, was breaking for third. Kinney opted to let the ball land and then try to throw out Pacheco at third. Why he did this is unclear? He could have just caught the ball and stepped on second for a double play. As it was Pacheco was safe at third and McDougall was out. Pacheco scored on a ground to make it 6-3. That run would matter.
Endicott kept trying to get back into the game, but didn’t get close until the 8th when they scored twice to make it 6-5 Pomona-Pitzer. But, the Sagehens just needed three outs in the ninth to move on.
Pacheco led off the ninth with a double. The Saghens then brought in their closer, Eric Prough, who had pitched 3 1/3 innings yesterday. Prough gave up a double to Nicholas Notarangelo that tied the game. Cleanup hitter McDougall2 sacrificed him over to third which led to two intentional walks to load the bases. Endicott’s Robbie Wladowski hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Greg Pierantoni. Pierantoni had plenty of time to get the force at home, but his feet slipped out from under him as he made the throw and it was wide of the plate and Notarangelo scored to give Endicott the win.
The second game of the day was a winner’s bracket game between Misericordia and defending champ Lynchburg. Lynchburg hit Misericordia hard in the second for three runs to build an early lead.
The Eagles kept tacking on, even adding one run in the fifth on two walks, a hit batter, and a balk. Lynchburg’s Nick Mattfield shut out Misericordia until allowing a 2 RBI double with 2 outs in the ninth. Colin McGuire came in to get the last out.
Misericordia plays Endicott Sunday in an elimination game. Lynchburg gets a valuable day of rest.
In the other elimination game, Birmingham-Southern, now officially a non-functioning school, played to continue its existence against Randolph-Macon.
[Digression starting]
Randolph-Macon is named after John Randolph of Roanoke, a noted conservative Democrat who came from a prominent Virginia family. It is believed that Randolph had tuberculosis as a child and it prevented him from going through puberty. So he always had a high voice and could not grow facial hair. He also was short-tempered and frequently brought large dogs of his on to the floor of the House. Eventually, Speaker of the House Henry Clay put in a “No Dogs Allowed” rule for Congress.
Macon was Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina, who is best known for the passage of Macon’s Bill Number 2. That bill gave the President the authority to suspend trade with either England or France if one of the two countries agreed to start trading with the United States again. This was passed in 1812. It was supposed to encourage England and France from both interfering with American trade. It didn’t really work and the War of 1812 resulted and countless American school children have been forced to try to explain the causes of that war unsuccessfully in weirdly written essays.3
[End of digression]
Anyway, back to baseball. Birmingham-Southern and Randolph-Bacon played a wild back and forth game. Birmingham-Southern struck first with a 3-run homer from Jackson Webster in the first inning. The Panthers tacked another run in the third for a 4-0 lead.
Randolph-Macon got on the board with two runs in the fifth and then tied it with two more in the seventh. Randolph-Macon then added three in the eighth, with two of the runs coming on wild pitches, to take a 7-4 lead.
The Yellow Jackets lead was short-lived as two singles and a triple made it 7-6. A failed squeeze play didn’t slow down Birmingham-Southern as they used a stolen base and a single to get home the tying run.
The game was still tied in the bottom of the ninth when Webster hit his second homer of the game, a 2 run shot, to keep Birmingham-Southern alive for one more day.
Finally, the action in Eastlake ended with a winner’s bracket game between Salve Regina and Wisconsin Whitewater (UWWW).
Salve Regina scored twice in the second on three hits and that would be all the scoring in the game. Sean Mulligan of Salve Regina pitched a four-hit shutout. Michael Hilker, Jr of UWWW gave up just five hits in his eight inning complete game loss.
Tomorrow, the Warhawks of UWWW will take on Birmingham-Southern in an elimination game.
The winners of both elimination games will need to beat their opponents twice on Monday to advance while Lynchburg and Salve Regina will only need to win once.
I’m afraid I’m going to talk too much about Messrs Randolph and Macon.
If you miss the sacrifice bunt, watch college baseball. It thrives there.
You might also guess that both men were slaveholders and were not exactly known for their kind and understanding views of society. Randolph and Macon both were strongly opposed to the Federal government paying for any internal improvements in the United States and most likely would be unlike a modern politician and never show up at the ground breaking ceremony for the building of anything. If you’re driving on a bridge that collapses, these guys would probably be happy about it.
You mean the war that would just be a "matter of marching"?
I have some thoughts on that war but will save them for my Substack.