ABILENE, Texas – Mike Vass drove in five runs and Kurt Yacko shut the door
in relief for the third straight day as Chapman won a slugfest with Trinity
Friday at Walt Driggers Field. The win puts Chapman in position to play for
the NCAA Division III West Region Baseball title Saturday, which would be
the program¹s fourth straight.
Vass knocked in a 3-run home run in the third, which was part of a 5-run
inning for the Panthers. The Tigers 3-1 before Chapman took a 6-3 lead,
however, Trinity struck back with four runs in the bottom of third
highlighted by Dylan Early¹s fourth homer of the tournament, a 3-run shot
off Jordan Sigman and the Tigers re-gained the lead 7-6.
The Panthers responded with three runs in the top half of the fourth inning
with four runs including a two-run double from Vass and two-run homer from
Stuart Hyman. After Chapman took the lead once again at 9-7, neither team
scored until the ninth inning.
Drew Bignall¹s only blemish in relief for Trinity came when he gave up a
solo shot to Chapman catcher Matt Pearson. With a three-run lead and Yacko
already in the ball game, Trinity rallied to score two runs.
Pennington and Early each drove in runs for the Tigers with singles,
however, neither run was charged to Yacko because of an early inning error.
Both runs came with two outs and Chapman should have been out of the inning
without further damage.
Yacko picked up his second save of the tournament and has three appearances
in each of Chapman¹s three wins. The junior all-American picked up a win in
the extra-inning contest over McMurry Thursday and picked up a save against
La Verne Wednesday. So far, Yacko has eight strikeouts and hasn¹t allowed an
earned run in 8.2 innings of work in relief.
Sigman picked up the win in 6.2 innings of work, he allowed eight hits and
gave up seven runs (all earned), walked three and struck out none.
Trinity¹s Early drove in four runs on the day and has a tournament-high 10
RBI through three games. Tiger starter Ryan Poffenroth lasted just 3.1
innings and gave up eight runs. Britton Horn and Bignall tried to keep the
Tigers within striking distance combining the last 5.2 innings to allow only
two more Chapman runs.
However, Trinity faces elimination at 7 p.m. Friday when it plays the winner
of the La Verne vs. Cal State-East bay game Friday afternoon.
Chapman improved to 38-3 on the year and Trinity fell to 34-14 on the
season.
CAL STATE EAST BAY 6 La Verne 4
ABILENE, Texas Cal State East Bay stayed alive and eliminated La Verne
from the NCAA Division III West Region Baseball Championship Friday with a
6-4 win at Walt Driggers Field. Steven Roll threw eight strong innings and
Mark Marelich drove in two runs to help the Pioneers have a chance to play
into the championship game Sunday.
The Pioneers will immediately face Trinity following the victory for a
chance to play Chapman Saturday for the west region title and a berth to the
NCAA Division III World Series. Roll scattered nine hits, allowed four runs
(two earned), walked three and struck out three to even his season¹s record
to 3-3.
After La Verne posted a run in the second inning, the Pioneers put up three
runs in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly, a wild pitch and a RBI
single Steven Shinkwin. Then CSUEB scored one run in the fifth and two runs
in the sixth thanks to Marelich¹s two-run single.
Marelich¹s big hit came after La Verne scored two runs in the top of the
sixth to cut the lead to 4-3. But after Joey Luoma and Domingo Rodriguez
scored on Marleich¹s two-out single, the Leopards wouldn¹t be able to
rebound. La Verne did scored one run in the top of the ninth inning but Cody
Hazen came into shut the door and picked up his 11th save of the season.
Ryan Rose picked up the loss for the Leopards after pitching just 3.2
innings. He allowed three runs on four hits, walked two and struck out one.
Allen Komori and Grant Wheatley finished the game for La Verne in relief and
combined to allow three runs in the final 4.1 innings.
The Leopards¹ season ended with a 26-16-1 record while CSUEB improved to
28-15. The Pioneers will look to avenge Thursday night¹s loss to Trinity.
The Tigers beat CSUEB 8-3 Thursday night before falling to Chapman Friday
afternoon.
