The Misericordia University baseball team's historic 2018 season has come to an end after falling to top-seed Randolph-Macon, 14-6, in the College World Series at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wisconsin.
The Cougars finish the season with a 37-15 record, second most wins in program history, and became the first Cougars squad to reach the Division III College World Series. They also became just the second team in Middle Atlantic Conference history to earn a win at the College World Series, the first being Upsala College back in 1980.
Misericordia battled back from deficits of 3-0 and 5-2, but were unable to climb back into the ball game after the Yellow Jackets took an eight-run lead in the sixth.
"I'm proud of our guys, we gave them all that they could handle for the first five innings," said Head Coach Pete Egbert. "We just couldn't miss a barrel in the sixth and they pulled away, but we competed to the last out so I'm real proud of our guys."
"Not a lot of people expected us to be here, even in the regionals, I don't think a lot of people saw us getting out of that, especially with some of the teams that were there and I hope that we proved some people wrong and showed them something this year, and I'm really proud of our team for that," said relief pitcher Kyle Melahn.
Steve Weisensee and Tyler Holzapfel each had two hits and an RBI and Sean Boylan drove in a pair of runs to lead the offense.
Elliot Forde and Melahn each pitched 2.2 innings and Dan Zurowski threw 1.2 innings in relief with two strikeouts. Kyle Rogalski and Tom Jacob closed out the game with an inning apiece.
The Yellow Jackets jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first on a two-run home run by Cole Migliorini and an RBI single from Reece Yeargain.
After Forde got through the second inning with help from a 6-4-3 double play, the Cougars cut into their deficit in the bottom of the inning. Weisensee led off the inning with a double and Sean Lyons was hit by a pitch. Conor Smith sacrificed them both over and Boylan followed with a two-RBI single up the middle.
Randolph-Macon answered back with two runs in the third, but Lyons helped limit the damage in the inning even further with a diving catch as he ran in on the ball in left field off the bat of Yeargain.
Misericordia got a run back in the home half of the third as Holzapfel doubled and came around to score on a single by Weisensee. A strong throw came in from right field, but Holzapfel was able to dive head first to the outside of the plate and slap his hand on the corner to make it 5-3.
After Melahn worked a perfect fourth inning, the Cougars took advantage of some Yellow Jacket mistakes in the bottom half. Santo Guinta and Boylan each reached on an error with one out. Kenny Jarema followed by hitting a chopper to third base for what could have been an inning-ending double play, but he took his eye off the ball and muffed it and was only able to get the out at third. With Abate up, a wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third and the junior took advantage with a swinging bunt up the third-base line as all runners were safe. After Abate stole second, Holzapfel slapped a single the other way to tie the game and looked to give Misericordia the lead, but Abate was cut down at the plate by the left fielder.
Melahn worked another scoreless inning in the fifth, with the help of another Randolph-Macon mistake. With a runner on first, Yeargain hit a grounder to Boylan at shortstop, who could not get a grip on the ball, but threw back to second base to get the runner, who had rounded the bag a little too hard.
However, the Yellow Jackets were able to take the lead in the sixth. Ryan Duphorn hit a go-ahead RBI single and after loading the bases, Migliorini hit a double to left-center field to drive in two more. After re-loading the bases, a walk, single and triple followed to put Randolph-Macon up 13-5 in the sixth.
Cole Bixler knocked in a run in the seventh and Randolph-Macon added a run in the eighth to produce the final score.
The Cougars will return many players next year from this season and sophomore Holzapfel will remember this season's accomplishments as they head into 2019.
"It's a huge moment in program history for us," said Holzapfel. "The Cougs can ball so it's a new standard for us and we just want to get back here next year and we're already getting ready for that."
