Grand Chute, Wisc. - Junior RHP Jordan Jaehne-Llanas
(Kenosha, Wisc.) allowed seven hits, five walks, and an
unearned run with nine strikeouts in eight-plus innings, and senior
1B John Lequia (Racine, Wisc.) totaled five RBI,
including a grand slam to lead the Carthage College Red Men to a
10-1 win over the defending NCAA Champion Trinity College Bantams
in an elimination game of the NCAA Division III National
Championship Tournament this afternoon at Fox Cities Stadium.
Trinity closes its season at 33-7, bowing out in the Division III
World Series in two games for the third time. The top-ranked
Bantams had won all seven of its post-season games to reach the
tournament, and were looking to become the first team in 20 years
to repeat as NCAA Division III National Champions. Carthage
improves to 37-8 and will play the loser of this evening's game
between Kean and Wooster.
"It was anybody's game through six-and-a-half innings and we had
our chances but just couldn't get it done;" said Trinity Head Coach
Bill Decker. "We gave a good effort, and we
have to tip our hats to Carthage. They hung in there and then
took advantage of their opportunity when it came."
Carthage broke open a 1-0 game in the bottom of the seventh
inning, when Lequia hit the first pitch by Bantam freshman lefty
reliever James Ramsey (Belmont, Mass.) over the
right field wall just inside the foul pole for a grand slam.
Freshman 2B Tyler Eickenmeyer (Kenosha, Wisc.) had
opened the inning with a single and junior SS Joe Ferro
(Romeoville, Ill.) reached first when Trinity junior 1B
Kent Graham (Longmeadow, Mass.) mishandled his
sacrifice bunt attempt. Trinity junior left-handed starter
Derek Anderson (Great Falls, Va.) hit the next
batter, and was replaced after allowing just four hits but three
runs and three walks with three strikeouts in six innings of
work. Trinity junior RHP Conor O'Sullivan-Pierce
(Cambridge, Mass.) did his job, getting a ground ball to
third that sophomore Kevin Collins (Easton, Conn.)
fielded cleanly and quickly fired home for the first out, before
Lecquia drove home the first four of what became a eight-run inning
for the Red Men.
"That was the hardest 10-1 win I've ever been involved with in
baseball," said Carthage Head Coach Augie
Schmidt. "Our pitcher's ability to work out of
pressure situations kept us in the game until we were able to come
though offensively with a big inning."
Anderson had worked four scoreless innings to start the game,
extending his streak of innings pitched without allowing a run to
13 in a row, before Carthage went ahead, 1-0, on a walk, an
unsuccessful fielder's choice on a sacrifice bunt attempt, an
infield hit, and an RBI groundout by Lequia. Bantam sophomore
SS Robert Martin (Lowell, Mass.) recorded a the
third out on a nice play up the middle with runners on second and
third, stretching to snare the bouncing ball behind the second base
bag and twirling around before firing to first base.
Trinity threatened to score in the four separate innings, while
the game was still very much up for grabs, starting with the second
frame that began with a walk by Graham who advanced to second on a
Carthage error. Bantam sophomore DH Kevin Mortimer
(Spencer, Mass.) came through with a one-out single to
right and Graham held up at third, but the throw home from the
outfield traveled far toward the first base dugout prompting
Trinity senior co-captain 2B Ryan Piacentini (Portland,
Maine) to take off for third. With two runners on
third, Graham was tagged out, and Jaehne-Llanas recorded the final
out on a ground ball.
Trinity loaded the bases with two outs in the third on singles
by Collins and senior co-captain C Sean Killeen
(Greenfield, Mass.) and another Carthage error, but
Jaehne-LLanas fanned Trinity junior OF James Wood (Windham,
N.H.) to keep the game scoreless. An infield hit by
Martin, a fielder's choice and a single to right field by sophomore
OF Alex Rokicki (Truro, Mass.) put runners on
first and third with one out in the fourth frame, but Jaehne-Llanas
worked out of trouble with a strikeout and a groundout on the next
two batters. In the Bantam half of the seventh frame, junior
OF Jack Abbott (Longmeadow, Mass.) reached second
on a two-base error by Eickmeyer, and the bases eventually loaded
up on an infield single by Rokicki and a walk by Killeen.
Jaehne-Llanas escaped once again, inducing a pop-up to Eickmeyer by
Graham for the third out.
The Bantams ruined the shutout in the eighth inning when Wood
led with a single and scored on Carthage's fourth error of the
game, but Trinity left 11 runners on base in this game and 20 in
its two losses. Rokicki finished 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI
for the Bantam offense, while Eickmeyer and Ferro each had two hits
and Ferro added a pair of RBI for the Red Men. Wood was
Trinity's top hitter in the tournament with four hits in nine
at-bats, a double, two runs, and two RBI.
"This is a sour moment for those guys who were here last year,
but I don't think it takes anything away from what they
accomplished last spring," added Coach Decker, whose team became
the third straight defending champion to lose its first two games
in this tournament (Marietta in 2007 and Kean in 2008).
box score
