Four Teams Remain Alive For NCAA Title

Two teams staved off elimination Sunday and earned the opportunity to play for a berth in the title series at the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.

Randolph-Macon College (Va.) and Texas Lutheran University both won a pair of games at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium and will face familiar opponents today.

Randolph-Macon (38-8-1) beat the University of Texas at Tyler (37-18) on Sunday, and faces the Patriots again today to win pool A. Texas Lutheran (41-10) downed Concordia University Chicago (40-14) late Sunday night and takes on the Cougars again today in a bid to win pool B. The winners advance to a best-of-three championship series set to begin on Tuesday.

In the late game Sunday, Concordia Chicago rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth, but Texas Lutheran scored three in the top of the ninth to pick up a 9-7 victory.

Spencer Brandt drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth, and Riley Schaefer tacked on two more runs to put Texas Lutheran in command. Drew Waller worked the final 1.2 innings to get the win.

Schaefer went 2-for-5 and drove in three runs, and Keaton Boyson collected three hits and scored a pair of runs.

Randolph-Macon took command early and went on to a 6-1 victory over Texas-Tyler. Michael Zubovich went 6.1 innings, allowed six hits, struck out three and walked one to get the win.

Rick Spiers went 2-for-5 with an inside-the-park homer and finished with four runs batted in. Joseph Tuzzolo went 3-for-4 for the Yellowjackets.

In Sunday's two elimination games, Texas Lutheran downed Swarthmore College (Pa.) 3-2 in 13 innings, and Randolph-Macon used a huge inning en route to a 14-6 victory over Misericordia University (Pa.).

Texas Lutheran scored in the top of 13th inning after Andrew Whitten led off the frame with a double. Schaefer later delivered a two-out single to left field to score Whitten and give the Bulldogs the lead.

Cole Beeker picked up a one-out double in the bottom half of the inning, but Waller came on in relief and got a fly out and a strikeout to end it.

Schaefer went 3-for-7, and Thomas Varner went 3-for-4 to pace Texas Lutheran's 13-hit attack. Beeker went 3-for-6 to lead Swarthmore, which was eliminated and finished with a 38-11 record.

Randolph-Macon exploded for eight runs in the sixth inning to break open a close game against Misericordia (37-15), which was eliminated with the loss. The game was tied 5-5 when Randolph-Macon scored eight times in the top of the sixth to pull away.

Cole Grinde went 4-for-5, drove in three runs and scored twice to lead Randolph-Macon's 16-hit attack. Cole Migliorini drove in four runs with a double and a homer for the Yellowjackets. Reece Yeargain went 3-for-4 and drove in three runs, and Michael Nickles had a pair of hits for Randolph-Macon.

Matthew Nickles went 5.2 innings and picked up the win for Randolph-Macon.

2018 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship • Host Website

Photo courtesy of Steve Frommell, D3Photopgraphy.com