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.
