W&J makes opening statement in NCAA tourney
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Kyle McLain’s two-out single in the seventh inning scored Scott Liller and broke a tie, and Washington & Jefferson went on to a 5-3 victory over Illinois Wesleyan in the opening game of the NCAA Division III Mideast at Art Nehf Field Wednesday morning.
The Presidents (31-11) advance to the winner’s bracket and will play No. 1 seed Manchester, a 12-3 winner over Mount Union, today at 4:30 p.m. The win was the first for W&J during the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
“This was an important win for our team. We’ve never been in the winner’s bracket before, so to take a game right off the bat is something we really wanted to do,” W&J coach Jeff Mountain said.
Junior right-handed pitcher Eddie Nogay was the winner, improving his record to 11-1 this season. Nogay went 8 1/3 innings, allowing three earned runs on 12 hits. He struck out out four. Lefty Jared Baird needed one pitch to record the final two outs as he induced a game-ending, 3-6-3 double play to earn his third save.
Nogay, who is now 2-0 in NCAA tournament games, had to work himself out of trouble throughout the early innings, including a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the third that ended with a double play.
“I just tried to throw the ball over the plate like always,” said Nogay, who improved his career record to 21-1. “I need to give a lot of credit to the defense. … Everyone did a great job today in all aspects of the game.”
W&J scored first with a pair of runs in the fifth. Liller scored via a wild pitch and D.J. Michalski made it 2-0 when he scored on a single by Josh Staniscia.
Illinois Wesleyan (32-13), the 2010 national champion, took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth, but W&J tied it on Michael Ruffing’s two-out single in the sixth.
Liller reached base on a fielding error to start the seventh and and scored on McLain’s game-winning hit. hit. Tyler Schultz followed with a run-scoring hit to provide an insurance run.
“Key two-out hits were the difference,” Mountain added. “The formula to win in the tournament is solid defense, pitching and timely hitting because the opportunity to score is not as prevalent as in the regular season.”
All nine W&J starters had at least one hit, led by multi-hit efforts from Liller, Scott Brady and Ronny Peirish. Liller also scored a pair of runs and stole a base.
Losing pitcher Jeff Johnson suffered his first loss in eight decisions this season.