Drake Koch was dominant on the mound, throwing a complete-game, as the Cougars defeated the Virginia Wesleyan Marlins, 4-1, Thursday afternoon in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional at PeoplesBank Park in York, PA.
Koch did not allow a hit until the seventh inning and only allowed four hits in the game and just one run in the ninth inning. The junior struck out nine to give him 65 for the season, good enough for fourth all-time.
On offense, Conor Smith reached base all four times and scored twice. Kenny Jarema and Sean Lyons each had two hits and an RBI and Alec Iurato added a hit and a run batted in.
Jarema led off the game by reaching on an error and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Parker Abate. Tyler Holzapfel followed with a long fly ball which looked gone off the bat, but was caught at the warning track. Chance Pauley proceeded to strikeout Iurato to end the threat.
After Koch got the Marlins out 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first, the Cougars took a 1-0 lead in the second. Smith walked with two outs and stole second before coming around on a single through the left-side by Lyons to give MU the early lead.
Virginia Wesleyan threatened in the bottom of the inning by putting a runner on third with one out, but Koch struck back-to-back hitters to preserve the lead.
In the third, Jarema and Abate each singled to lead off the inning and advanced a base on a balk. After Holzapfel grounded out to first, Iurato laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to double the Cougars lead.
After another 1-2-3 inning from Koch in the third, Misericordia added another run in the fourth. A single from Lyons sandwiched around walks to Smith and Sean Boylan loaded the bases. Jarema followed with another walk after a seven-pitch at-bat to force in Smith from third.
Koch continued to dominate in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, striking out three and walking just one in the three innings.
After Virginia Wesleyan got their first hit of the game to lead off the seventh inning, Koch induced a 4-6-3 double play on the next pitch to get momentum back.
In the eighth, Santo Guinta led off the inning with a screaming line-drive double down the left field line. Smith followed with a one-hopper to the second basemen, which he could not handle, allowing Guinta to round third and score the game's fourth run.
In the bottom of the inning, Randy Neisz hit a one-out triple, but Koch struck out the next two batters to keep the shutout intact.
After the Cougars went down in order in the ninth, Koch went back out to the mound, looking for the complete game. After the first two batters reached base, two straight groundouts got the Marlins on the board, but it also got MU within one out from victory. The right-hander got ahead in the count and threw a curveball to get Zack Clark swinging for strike three.
Misericordia advances in the winner's bracket and will face the winner of Castleton and Rowan tomorrow
