The Misericordia University baseball team is in a familiar place as they head to an elimination game after falling to the University of Texas at Tyler, 7-3, Saturday afternoon at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wisconsin.
"It was a good ballgame, I think our guys competed. I told the players I didn't think the game was as lopsided as the score would indicate. We had some hard-hit balls that just didn't fall, they turned a few double plays, but I though our guys competed throughout," said Head Coach Pete Egbert.
Post-Game Press Conference
The Cougars will play Randolph-Macon in an elimination game, tomorrow at 11 a.m. est. as they look to extend their six-game winning streak in elimination games dating back to the MAC Freedom Championships. MU defeated Randolph-Macon, 4-2, yesterday in their first game at the College World Series.
Misericordia falls to 37-14 this season as the Patriots improve to 37-17. UT-Tyler advances to the pool A championship game tomorrow and will face the winner of the Misericordia-Randolph-Macon game.
Parker Abate and Kenny Jarema each had two hits while Abate and Tyler Holzapfel each drove in a run.
Drake Koch got the start on the mound for MU and went six innings, allowing six runs, four earned, while striking out three.
Ryan Cheatham nearly went the distance for the Patriots as he came out after 8.1 innings. He only struck out one and allowed eight hits, but got key outs, including three double plays to limit the damage to just three runs.
The Cougars threatened in the top of the first as Jarema and Abate hit singles to lead off the inning, but the inning was quickly halted as Tanner Roach made a leaping catch at the wall on a fly ball by Holzapfel and turned it into a double play at second base.
"It's a game of momentum and really not very often in this game do you have a play that big so early, but today you did," continued Egbert. "Roach just made a heck of a play, sort of switched the momentum and they were able to take advantage of it."
UT-Tyler took the lead in the second inning with three two-out runs. With a runner on, Graham Welch and Blake Maddox hit a triple and double back-to-back to take a 2-0 lead and Henry Sanchez followed with a single to go up three early in the game.
In the third, the Patriots added to their lead with two unearned runs on two doubles and an error and added another run in the fourth on an RBI single from Jared Pauley.
The Cougars got on the board in the bottom of the sixth as Sean Lyons chopped a double over the third baseman's head to lead off the inning and eventually came around to score on a double down the right-field line by Holzapfel.
"We always compete, so it was that point in the game where one hit finally fell. It wasn't any different approach, we were on the guy all day. Just got lucky, hit a good spot and got us on the board," said Holzapfel.
Koch settled down and ended his outing with two straight scoreless innings and handed the ball to Zach Mason in the seventh, who threw three innings, striking out one while allowing one run.
Misericordia threatened in the eighth, putting two runners on with two outs, but Cheatham was able to induce a groundball from Santo Guinta to get out of the inning.
The Patriots added an insurance run in the ninth before the Cougars were able to push across two runs in their final turn at-bat. Cole Bixler and Chad Bell walked before Jarema singled to load the bases for Abate, who hit into a fielder's choice to score a run. The throw from the second baseman as he tried to turn a game-ending double play sailed into the stands, which allowed the second run to score.
Misericordia will now have to win their next three games to advance to the championship series. If they win tomorrow morning, they will play UT-Tyler again tomorrow afternoon. A win against the Patriots would force a rematch, Monday afternoon.
"Randolph-Macon is gunning for us," said Egbert. "I'm sure that they want another shot at us, but we'll be ready for that and our guys will compete, that's for sure."
