It all comes down to one game for the MAC Freedom championship as the Misericordia baseball team forced a winner-take-all final game with a 4-1 victory over the DeSales Bulldogs that took over 30 hours to complete due to rain suspending it in the middle of the eighth inning from Sunday to Monday.
The Cougars improve to 30-12 to reach the 30-win plateau for the eighth straight season.
Steve Weisensee went 3-5 with three RBI and Parker Abate went 3-5 with two runs scored to lead the offense.
Tom Jacob threw the first six innings and allowed just one run while striking out two before Kyle Melahn came into pitch the final three innings, facing the minimum to earn his seventh save of the season to tie a Misericordia single-season record.
After a scoreless first inning from both teams, Misericordia jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second. Alec Iurato earned a one-out walk and advanced to second on a groundout. Sean Lyons followed by ripping a single up the middle to score Iurato who dove head first to get in ahead of the throw.
Weisensee doubled the Cougar lead to 2-0 in the third with a double off the right-field wall, just missing a home run, to drive in Abate, who had singled to lead off the inning.
DeSales got a run back in the fourth and looked poised for more, but Jacob froze Nick White with a curveball to get out of a bases-loaded jam.
In the fifth, Abate and Tyler Holzapfel singled to lead off the inning and advanced to second and third on an ugly, yet successful, sacrifice bunt from Santo Guinta. The bunt went straight in the air, but was dropped by the catcher, and with the third basemen charging for the bunt, no one was covering third, allowing the runners to advance, despite having to freeze. Weisensee took advantage of the Bulldogs mistake by ripping an opposite-field two-run single to left to give MU a 4-1 lead.
Jacob faced another threat in the bottom of the fifth, but DeSales ran themselves out of the inning. With runners on first and third and two outs, they tried to pull off a double steal, but the Cougars were ready and got the runner on third in a pickle, where Jarema chased him down to put the tag on and complete the 2-4-2-5 putout.
Jacob came back out for the sixth and retired the Bulldogs in order to complete his outing. Melahn came out of the bullpen and subsequently had 1-2-3 seventh inning on eight pitches.
After the Cougars were retired in the top of the eighth, the skies opened up as rain started coming down forcing the last inning and a half to be played Monday night.
On Monday, the first Bulldog batter reached base with a single, but Melahn got a groundball to first base for a 3-6-3 double play. He then proceeded to get the final four outs without an issue.
Game seven of the championships will begin at 6:50.
