For the first time in school history, the Misericordia Cougars are headed to the Division III College World Series. After defeating Babson earlier in the day, the Cougars took down the Beavers for a second time, 11-1, to win the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship.
Drake Koch was named the region's Most Outstanding Player and was joined on the All-Tournament team by teammates Tyler Holzapfel, Alec Iurato, Dan Zurowski, Parker Abate and Kyle Melahn.
Misericordia will head to Appleton, WI with a 36-13 record and winners of nine of their last 11 games.
Post Game Press Conference
In the title game, Monday afternoon, Tyler Holzapfel went 3-5 with four RBI and two runs scored. Iurato drove in two runs and Kenny Jarema, Abate, Holzapfel, Santo Guinta and Sean Boylan each scored twice.
Kyle Melahn got the rare start on the mound for Misericordia and went six strong innings, striking out three while allowing just one run on five hits. Just like the first game of the day, Dan Zurowski threw three scoreless innings out of the bullpen to earn the save.
The Cougars jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first as Abate walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch before coming around to score on a single by Iurato.
After the Beavers tied it up in the second inning, the Cougars responded the next inning, just as they have done in every game of the tournament, by scoring three runs. Boylan and Jarema walked to lead off the inning and after advancing on a groundout, Holzapfel drove them both in with a ground-rule double in the right-center field gap. He scored the third run of the inning as he came around to score when the shortstop threw the ball away trying to get Steve Weisensee out at first after hitting a grounder.
Both teams went down in order in the fourth, but MU added a run in the fifth as Boylan doubled and came around to score on a single by Holzapfel.
In the sixth, the Cougars added another run in the sixth on an RBI groundout from Sean Lyons.
Misericordia broke the game open in the seventh, scoring three runs. Jarema walked and eventually scored on a wild pitch. Abate singled and came around to score on a double by Holzapfel, who crossed the plate later in the inning on a groundout from Iurato.
The Cougars added two more runs on in the eighth just for good measure on just one hit. Boylan was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a run and Abate hit an RBI groundout.
In the bottom of the ninth, Zurowski allowed a leadoff single, but got a popup and two force outs at second to end the game and give the Cougars the title.
