Baseball
Cougars Advance To World Series Championship Game; Defeat UW-Stevens Point, 7-4
Grand Chute, Wis. (5/27/07) - The Kean University baseball team has advanced to the World Series championship game as they won their third game of the tournament, defeating local University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 7-4, Sunday night. With the win, Kean will play for their first-ever title on Tuesday, May 29th at noon local time against Emory University.
Stevens Point started the scoring in the top of the first when Tim Schlosser reached on a fielding error with one out. Zimmermann then stroked a double to center field to score Schlosser. The Cougars countered in the bottom of the first with an unearned run of their own. With one out, Joe D'Andrea (Hamilton, N.J.) reached on an infield single. The Pointers then misplayed Dan Mattonelli's (Hamilton, N.J.) ground ball to put runners at the corners. Derek Gianakas' (Edison, N.J.) sacrifice fly scored D'Andrea to tie the game at 1-1.
Kean took a 2-1 lead in the third when Maikel De La Rosa
(Newark, N.J.) started the inning with a single. After a
balk and ground out moved De La Rosa to third, he scored on
Mattonelli's ground out.
The Pointers tied the game at 2-2 with a run in the fourth. Jordan Zimmermann walked to start the inning, and Adam Evanoff followed with a single to put runners at the corners. Zimmermann then scored, as Brandon Scheidler grounded into a double play.
The Cougars grabbed the lead in the bottom of the fourth, with Perry Schatzow's (Ocean Twp., N.J.) one-out single starting the rally. Mike Shymanski (Edison, N.J.) followed with a double to put runners at second and third. Ryan Clark's (Livingston, N.J.) ground out scored Schatzow to give Kean a 3-2 advantage.
The Cougars started to separate themselves from Stevens Point with
a pair of runs in the sixth. Four hits in the inning helped Kean
extend its lead to 5-2. Aaron Richard (Plainfield,
N.J.), who finished 2-for-5, started the inning with a
single, but Pointers starter Mike Thrun retired the next two
batters. Clark, who drove in a game-high three runs, then singled
to center to score Richard, who had stolen second. Kevin
O'Neill (Union, N.J.) followed with another single, and De
La Rosa then singled to score Clark to make it 5-2. O'Neill had a
game-high three hits and De La Rosa went 2-for-4.
Stevens Point trimmed the lead to 5-4 in the top of the seventh. A fielding error allowed lead-off batter Brandon Scheidler to reach and Stewart Larson followed with a single to put runners at first and second. A balk moved both runners up, and Ryan Byrnes, who led the Pointers' attack by going 2-for-4, followed with a single to left to score Scheidler. After a sacrifice bunt pushed Byrnes to second, Joel Hojnacki's sacrifice fly scored Larson to cut the advantage to a single run.
Kean came right back in its half of the seventh to pump that lead back to three runs off reliever Travis Kempf. Gianakas and Richard led off with singles, and the runners moved up to second and third on a ground out. After a walk loaded the bases, Clark grounded to shortstop, but all the Pointers got was the force out at second base. Clark beat the throw to first to stay out of the double play and Gianakas scored. The Cougars then came up with another clutch hit, as O'Neill singled to right to score Richard and push the lead back to 7-4.
Closer Brandon Aich (Sayreville, N.J.),
celebrating his 20th birthday, worked two innings of
hitless relief to pick up his fourth save of the season, tying a
program record for saves in a season.
Starter Colin Feneis (Spotswood, N.J.) worked seven innings, allowed six hits and only one earned run to move to 6-1 on the season. He struck out seven and walked one.