Red Dragons Lose to Wheaton, 6-1, at World Series After Five-Run Ninth
GRAND CHUTE, WIS. – Wheaton College (Mass.) broke a 1-1 tie with five runs in the top of the ninth and the Lyons defeated Cortland, 6-1, in a second-round winner’s bracket game at the NCAA Div. III World Series. Cortland (40-8-1) will face Whitworth University (Wash.) in an elimination game Monday at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. Eastern). Wheaton (40-9) will face St. Thomas (Minn.) in the winner’s bracket final of the eight-team, double-elimination tournament Monday at 4:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. Eastern).
Wheaton’s Frank Holbrook improved to 10-0 with the victory. He allowed six runs and no walks, struck out eight and gave up one run in eight innings. Cortland senior Aaron Schuldt (Liverpool) dropped to 8-2 with the loss. He allowed only one run over the first eight innings before being tagged for all five of Wheaton’s runs in the ninth. His final line was seven hits and two walks with three strikeouts and six runs allowed, five earned, in eight and a third innings.
Kevin Foley finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored and Hal Landers drove in three runs for the Lyons. Junior John Adornetto (Commack) finished 3-for-4 with a run scored to lead Cortland.
Sean Ryan started the winning rally with a leadoff double to left center. He was bunted to third by Dan Haugh and Apolinar De la Cruz was intentionally walked. Dan Gusovsky then hit a ball in the hole at shortstop. Ryan scored, an dan error on the throw to second allowed De la Cruz to advance safely. Kevin Foley followed with an RBI single, John Keating walked and Justin Connor’s squeeze bunt scored Gusovsky. Landers completed the scoring with a two-run single up the middle.
Cortland took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Adornetto hit a two-out double and scored on an RBI single to right center by junior Michael LaTempa (LaGrangeville/Arlington). Wheaton tied the game in the third. Foley was hit by a pitch to start the inning and Keating singled through the left side. Dan Demeo bunted the runners to second and third. Landers then hit a grounder to first and Foley just slid under the tag after the throw home to score the tying run. The Lyons threatened for more that inning, but Adornetto made a diving stop at shortstop on a grounder and started a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.
Wheaton threatened again in the fourth after Ryan and Haugh led off with back-to-back singles and were bunted to second and third by De la Cruz. Wheaton then attempted a suicide squeeze bunt, but the batter missed on the attempt and Ryan was thrown out in a rundown. A flyout ended the inning.
Cortland had four runners reach second base after the first inning, but none of them made it to third base. The Red Dragons finished with seven hits, but only two over the final five innings.
Box Score
Photo Gallery from game (d3photography.com)
NOTEBOOK:
* Cortland will play Whitworth for the first time in school history. The Pirates advanced to the World Series in their first NCAA Div. III World Series appearance.
* Cortland has yet to start a World Series with a 2-0 record, but the Red Dragons have still been pretty successful coming out of the loser’s bracket in previous tournaments. In 2010, Cortland lost its second game of the World Series, but won three straight games before losing in the national title game to Illinois Wesleyan. In 2005, the Red Dragons lost their Series opener, but won four in a row and eventually finished second to Wisconsin-Whitewater. The Red Dragons also finished third in 1997 after losing their first game and third in 1998 after losing their second game.
QUOTEBOOK:
Cortland Head Coach Joe Brown:
Not much to say. We didn’t hit. Their pitcher threw well, and a couple situations late in the game affected us a little bit. We didn’t recover. They deserved to win.
(on what he tells the team now that’s it’s lost a game at the Series)
You have two choices right now. You can be calling home and say we’ll be home…in a few days or you can decide to compete and play baseball and play one game. We’re very capable of doing that. We certainly have enough pitching to stay around for a while, but we certainly have to a do a much better job offensively in scoring runs.
I felt that this was going to be a very, very tight game. We played them earlier in the year down in Florida and it went to the bottom of the ninth. This time it went to the top of the ninth. We knew this pitcher. (I’m) very disappointed in our offensive approach. We basically challenged (our own team) – I said, hey, it’s your call. You want to stay around and play and make your mark?
We leaned on (Aaron) a little bit, probably, too much. I asked him to try to get out of that ninth inning for us. The kid’s done it for us for two years. He’s had 10 days off – he hasn’t pitched since the regionals.
We’re OK. The big question now is mentally – how can you handle it mentally?
Senior pitcher Aaron Schuldt:
(on whether there was pressure on him going into the ninth in a 1-1 game)
Yeah, there was a little pressure, but I just didn’t execute my pitches in the ninth.
(on how he felt coming into the ninth inning)
I felt good. I felt like I still had my stuff. I just missed my spot on that 1-1 fastball and he (Ryan) hit it well and you saw the rest.
It’s just a game. People tend to forget that when you get here. It’s one loss. It takes two to get us out, and we’re not done yet.
