Salisbury baseball exits DIII College World Series: ‘Tough two games for us’ (original) (raw)

Maryland’s participation in the NCAA Division III College World Series is over.

The state’s final hope, No. 3 seed Salisbury, was escorted out of the final stage of the postseason by No. 2 seed Rowan, which forged an 8-3 victory Saturday night at Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio.

The Sea Gulls (37-11), who captured the national championship in 2021 and were making their ninth overall appearance at the College World Series and fourth in the past six years, lost for the fourth time in their past five games at this stage of the playoffs. They followed up a 17-game winning streak with setbacks to No. 6 seed Endicott on Friday and now the Profs.

Salisbury’s exit came on the heels of No. 4 seed Johns Hopkins’ 8-0 loss to No. 1 seed Denison earlier in the day. The Blue Jays also dropped their first two games of the College World Series.

Sixth among the eight teams in the College World Series in scoring (9.1 runs per game) and seventh in batting average (.310), the Sea Gulls struggled. They were outscored 13-4, totaled 13 hits, struck out 24 times and committed four errors.

“Tough two games for us,” coach Troy Brohawn said. “We had 37 wins on the year, and the pitching staff has pretty much carried the brunt of that. And then we get here, and we picked a bad time to not hit very consistently at all and play very subpar defense compared to what we have all season.”

Salisbury opened Saturday’s contest with freshman designated hitter Nathan Tondreault drilling a single to left field. Back-to-back grounders pushed Tondreault to third base, but he was stranded there after sophomore rightfielder Jay Newton’s pop-up to second base.

By contrast, Rowan (38-6) capitalized on its opportunities. In the bottom of that frame, the team loaded the bases with one out before freshman third baseman Brett Chiesa flew out to centerfield to score sophomore leftfielder Damon Suriani. Then senior first baseman Nick Struble punched a single to center to drive in junior shortstop Brayden Davis.

The fast start was just what Profs coach Mike Dickson had wished for.

“I thought it was important we got off to an early start today,” he said. “We wanted to try to be aggressive early on. Anytime you’re coming off of a late loss, the team that scores first and tries to get on early in the game is generally the team that can come out victorious, and that was part of our goal today.”

The Sea Gulls halved the deficit with two outs in the top of the third inning. After Tondreault sliced the ball down the leftfield line for a double, three straight walks — the final issued to Newton — sent Tondreault across the plate to make the score 2-1.

The Profs quickly responded during their at-bats when Davis launched a 1-0 shot over the rightfield fence for a solo home run.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Rowan exploded for five runs. A single to left field by Struble accounted for one run, a wild pitch by Salisbury junior right-hander Cole Williams contributed to another score, a throwing error by senior second baseman Max Ehrhardt added a third run, and a double to right by senior centerfielder Mason Dorsey drove in two more runs.

The Sea Gulls scored twice in the top of the ninth inning. Sophomore third baseman Jackson Inman tripled to right field to score junior shortstop Trent Waire, and Newton doubled to left to plate Inman. But it wasn’t nearly enough.

Struble paced the Profs offense by reaching base in all five at-bats with three singles, a walk and a fielder’s choice, driving in two runs, and scoring once. Dorsey went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and Davis went 2-for-4 with three runs scored and one RBI.

Struble said he was motivated by a little pregame pep talk Dickson delivered to him. “I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, and I gave it right back to him,” he said with a smile.

Sophomore right-hander Austin Kreyenhagen improved to 9-1 by striking out eight Salisbury hitters and giving up just one earned run and four hits in six innings of work. Sophomore reliever Evan Brasberger pitched two scoreless innings before giving way to freshman closer Nick Watson in the ninth.

Rowan won for the 15th time in its past 16 games and advanced to another elimination game against either No. 6 seed Endicott (40-11) or No. 7 seed Adrian (38-12) on Sunday at 3 p.m.

Tondreault led the Sea Gulls with a 2-for-3 showing at the plate that included one run scored. Junior first baseman Griffin Shirk also went 2-for-3.

Salisbury entered the College World Series tied for fifth among the eight teams in home runs (42). The batters set school records for stolen bases and sacrifice bunts, but Brohawn said that offensive strategy proved difficult against the pitching the Sea Gulls faced.

“You’re going to face really quality arms, and if you don’t match them on the mound and you can’t match them offensively and defensively, you’re going to have a tough time,” he said. “For those two days, if you score four runs in two games, you’re not going to win too many of them at this point of the year.”

Salisbury used five pitchers in the game with junior right-hander Ethan Hirschfeld (1-2) absorbing the loss after surrendering two earned runs and three hits in the first inning.

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