First-Time Finalists Shine In Opening Round of NCAA Championship

The newcomers to the 2018 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship did well on Friday's opening day at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

The University of Texas at Tyler, Misericordia University (Pa.) and Texas Lutheran University all won on the opening day along with Concordia University Chicago, which is one of the two returning teams from last year.

Texas-Tyler (36-17) opened play on Friday with a 10-5 victory over the State University of New York at Oswego (30-13). The Patriots got a superb pitching performance from Simon Sedillo, who went the distance to earn the victory. He allowed seven hits, struck out three and walked three.

Texas-Tyler pounded out 16 hits against three Oswego pitchers with six players collecting at least two hits. Graham Welch went 2-for-5 with a homer and drove in four runs for the Patriots. Tanner Roach had three hits, and Bowie Farris went 2-for-4 and drove in a pair for Texas-Tyler.

The game was tied 4-4 when Texas-Tyler scored twice in the second and pulled away with two in the seventh and two more in the ninth.

Misericordia (37-13) won a tight 4-2 decision over Randolph-Macon College (Va.). The Cougars built a 4-0 lead before Randolph-Macon scored single runs in the eighth and ninth, but Kyle Melahn shut down Randolph-Macon (35-8-1) and pick up the save.

Ian McCole tossed six scoreless innings, striking out three and walking two, to earn the victory.

Conor Smith went 2-for-4 and drove in two runs, and Jenny Jarema and Sean Lyons also had two hits for Misericordia.

Concordia Chicago (39-13) jumped on Swarthmore (37-10) in the opening inning and went on to a 9-4 victory over the Garnet. Concordia scored three times in the first and added two more in the fourth and three more in the sixth to build a 8-2 edge.

Brian Musielak turned in seven strong innings to lead Concordia to the victory. He allowed eight hits, struck out three and walked four.

Brady Roberts went 4-for-5 and drove in two runs for Concordia, and Joe Silva was 3-for-5 with four runs batted in. Connor Brandon also picked up three hits and scored a pair of runs for Concordia.

In the final game, Texas Lutheran (39-9) topped the College of Wooster (Ohio) (40-9) 7-0. Nathan Malinovsky twirled a four-hit shutout for Texas Lutheran as he struck out nine and walked three.

2018 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship • Host Website

Photo courtesy of Steve Frommell, D3Photopgraphy.com