The Misericordia University baseball season came to a heartbreaking end with a 6-5, 11-inning loss to Keystone in the loser's bracket final of the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, Saturday afternoon at PNC Field in Moosic, PA.
Keystone's Lymbel Guerrero laced a single up the middle to drive in the winning run with two outs in the 11th inning and make a winner of Robert Minaya who worked two scoreless innings.
Gabriel Molina doubled over the third base bag to lead off the 11th and moved to third on Ricky Riscica's sacrifice bunt to set up Guerrero's heroics.
Misericordia finished the most successful season in school history at 39-11.
Tyler Gurman and Gabriel Ramirez led the Giants with three hits each while Austin Straub and Molina both had two hits.
Steve Sulcoski led Misericordia with a double, a triple and four RBI.
Ryan Cacchioli added two hits and
Kyle Lindsay scored three runs.
Misericordia took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
Kyle Lindsay drew a leadoff walk and advanced on
Andrew Tressa's sacrifice bunt. After a passed ball, Lindsay came home on
Steve Sulcoski's sacrifice fly to center.
Keystone tied in the bottom of the frame on two errors, one hit and a hit batter. Leadoff batter Kevin Catherina's line drive was misplayed and Tyler Gurman's one-out line drive single to center put runners at first and second.
Misericordia went back in front in the third when Lindsay worked a one-out walk and scored on Sulcoski's two-out, line drive double into the left field corner.
Keystone took its first lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth. Austin Straub lined the first pitch he saw to center for a single and came all the way around on Gabriel Ramirez opposite field double to the warning track in left field.
Gabriel Ramirez lined an 0-2 curve ball into left field to put runners at the corners and Gabriel Molina put the Giants ahead with a sacrifice to center.
Misericordia answered with three runs in the top of the seventh.
Joe Tagliarini reached via hit by pitch and went to second on
Chris Boroch's one-out single to right.
Kyle Lindsay followed with a liner to right to score Tagliarini with the tying run. After both runners advanced on
Andrew Tressa's fielder's choice, Sulcoski drilled a two-run triple over the outstretched glove of a diving Tyler Gurman in left field.
Ramirez made a nice backhanded stab of
Kenny Durling's ground to end the inning.
Keystone came back with a pair of runs to tie in the bottom of the seventh. Miquel Castano reached on an infield error, moved to second on a wild pitch and eventually scored on Straub's groundout.
Gurman smashed a one-hopper over second base and stretched it into a double. Ramirez lined a single to left to tie it and Molina followed with another single to left. After Ricky Riscica reached via hit by pitch to end the inning, Rick McLaughlin's grounder to shortstop hit Molina to end the inning.
The teams remained tied until Guerrero's hit with two outs in the 11th.