NCAA Game 13
Lymbel Guerrero laced a single up the middle in the bottom of the 11th-inning to send the Keystone College baseball team to the championship game of the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional with a 6-5 win over Misericordia, Saturday afternoon at PNC Field in Moosic, PA.
Gabriel Molina doubled over the third base bag to lead off the 11th and moved to third on Ricky Riscica’s sacrifice bunt to set up Guerrero’s heroics.
Keystone, 36-9, will face Kean in the championship game and must win two games to advance to the D-III World Series.
Misericordia finished the most successful season in school history at 39-11.
Tyler Gurman and Gabriel Ramirez led the Giants with three hits each while Austin Straub and Molina both had two hits.
Robert Minaya worked two scoreless innings of reliefs to earn the win.
Steve Sulcoski led Misericordia with a double, a triple and four RBI. Ryan Cacchioli added two hits and Kyle Lindsay scored three runs.
Misericordia took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Kyle Lindsay drew a leadoff walk and advanced on Andrew Tressa’s sacrifice bunt. After a passed ball, Lindsay came home on Steve Sulcoski’s sacrifice fly to center.
Keystone tied itin the bottom of the frame on two errors, one hit and a hit batter. Leadoff batter Kevin Catherina’s line drive was misplayed and Tyler Gurman’s one-out line drive single to center put runners at first and second.
Misericordia went back in front in the third when Lindsay worked a one-out walk and scored on Sulcoski’s two-out, line drive double into the left field corner.
Keystone took its first lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth. Austin Straub lined the first pitch he saw to center for a single and came all the way around on Gabriel Ramirez opposite field double to the warning track in left field.
Gabriel Ramirez lined an 0-2 curve ball into left field to put runners at the corners and Gabriel Molina put the Giants ahead with a sacrifice to center.
Misericordia answered with three runs in the top of the seventh. Joe Tagliarini reached via hit by pitch and went to second on Chris Boroch’s one-out single to right.
Kyle Lindsay followed with a liner to right to score Tagliarini with the tying run. After both runners advanced on Andrew Tressa’s fielder’s choice, Sulcoski drilled a two-run triple over the outstretched glove of a diving Tyler Gurman in left field.
Ramirez made a nice backhanded stab of Kenny Durling’s ground to end the inning.
Keystone came back with a pair of runs to tie in the bottom of the seventh. Miquel Castano reached on an infield error, moved to second on a wild pitch and eventually scored on Straub’s groundout.
Gurman smashed a one-hopper over second base and stretched it into a double. Ramirez lined a single to left to tie it and Molina followed with another single to left. After Ricky Riscica reached via hit by pitch to end the inning, Rick McLaughlin’s grounder to shortstop hit Molina to end the inning.
The teams remained tied until Guerrero’s hit with two outs in the 11th.
