CARY, N.C. – Rollins got on the board early in Friday's game at the NCAA Division II Baseball National Championships, giving Point Loma its first loss, 12-4, in the first of two meetings between the two teams at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.
By winning its first two games in Cary, Point Loma earned two chances to defeat Rollins and advance to the final of the national championships, and the Sea Lions will get their second tomorrow at 9 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. (Pacific). Of the four teams remaining in the bracket, three of them now have one loss, while No. 1 seed North Greenville is the lone team to remain undefeated.
"Obviously, this one didn't go the way we wanted it to. At this point, it's kind of irrelevant whether it was a one-run loss or a bigger loss than that," head coach
Justin James said. "We got a bunch of guys on into the game that have been working hard all year and got their feet wet. We got to be ready for the next game, which we will be."
Rollins hit one home run in each of the first three innings of the game to rush out to an 8-0 lead and the Tars never looked back, winning their third-consecutive elimination game to stay alive in the tournament. The Sea Lions scored three runs in the final inning, but Jaylyn Whitehead kept Point Loma off the board for most of the game as the Tars' ace threw 153 pitches for a complete game.
Point Loma elected not to start PacWest Pitcher of the Year
Baxter Halligan, meaning the coaching staff will have him available to use in tomorrow's rematch or could try to save him for the tournament final.
"We still have a lot left in the tank,"
Scott Anderson said. "We didn't use a lot of our pitching, which will be crucial for helping our success tomorrow, so I think we are still in a pretty good spot to pitch well and hit well. I think we're ready to win."
The homeplate umpire in Friday's game called a tight strikezone with 42.4 percent of all pitches for both teams going for called balls. Rollins managed to take advantage of that in the first inning, getting a two-out walk followed shortly by a 3-run home run on a 2-0 count by Nick Santucci.
A walk at the end of a long at-bat also led off the second inning, setting up a 2-0 run home run by Jared Herron for the Tars. The momentum continued to build for Rollins in the third inning as Ryan Coleman's 3-run home run made the score 8-0.
Dylan Miller settled in after that and eventually worked through 4.2 innings before handing things off to the bullpen.
"It's tough when they put up three runs in the first inning, but we didn't give up all day," Anderson said. "Honestly, the thing that got me the most excited was seeing some of our guys who haven't gotten a lot of playing time, making plays at the very end, and playing hard. When you see how hard they are competing, I think that is a good momentum builder for our team."
Point Loma got on the board in the sixth inning when
Jakob Christian reached on a fielding error and advanced to second base. He was then driven in on a pair of flyouts with
Jack Malone earning credit for the RBI.
Matthew Schlesener threw 2.1 innings with no earned runs allowed in relief for the Sea Lions. His efforts afforded Point Loma a couple opportunities to come cut down the deficit, but runners left on base kept Rollins' lead at a comfortable place for the Tars.
Point Loma got some offense going in the ninth inning when
Seth Ryberg hit a leadoff single, which was followed by singles from
Jason DuMont and
Izayah Alvarez to put a second run on the board.
Connor Hill entered the game as a pinch hitter and hit a double down the leftfield line to drive in a second run. Then Halligan hit a groundout that drove in the fourth run before Rollins ended the threat.
The Sea Lions have been one game away from elimination once before this season and came back to win the next game against Azusa Pacific, 5-2. They will have to do the same in Cary in order to advance to the final of the championships. Point Loma now has a 50-9 record on the season and are 7-2 in the postseason.
