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Misericordia baseball is headed to the first NCAA super regional round in Division III history. And the Cougars are going there on a hot streak, sweeping the No. 1 ranked team in the country.
Sent on the road this weekend to Newport News, Va., for a best-of-five regional against Christopher Newport, the Cougars needed just three hits to secure a 4-3 win on Saturday to end the series early.
Misericordia had beaten the Captains 8-4 and 14-9 in a doubleheader on Friday before finishing off the sweep to improve to 35-11 on the season, winners in 11 of the last 12 games. The Captains entered the postseason ranked No. 1 nationally in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 poll.
The MAC Freedom champions will take on the winner of the Salisbury Regional, which will conclude Sunday. Washington & Jefferson takes on Rowan at 10 a.m. in the final round of that double-elimination bracket. Rowan must win twice to advance.
The super regional will be a best-of-three series held May 24-25, with the winner earning a spot in the eight-team Division III World Series in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The host Captains weren’t about to go down quietly on Saturday, breaking a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run homer.
“We weren’t that worried about it,” infielder Billy Kerwien said in a video posted by Christopher Newport. “After the two-run home run, we all just looked at each other and said, ‘All right. We have to answer back.’ “
So they did. Immediately.
With one out in the top of the sixth and runners at second and third, Kerwien tied the game with a single to right to start a four-run rally.
“Two strikes … and I could see the curveball was coming,” Kerwien said. “Just tried to give it a little poke to right field.”
The inning would continue thanks to a throwing error that should have been the third out. It proved costly for the Captains, as Misericordia went on to load the bases and bring in two more runs when Parker Abate and Steve Weisensee were both hit by pitches in consecutive at-bats.
Newport got one back in the home half on a solo home run. But Kyle Melahn shut things down from there, pitching the final 3.2 innings to tie his own school record with his eighth save to cap off a busy weekend.
“Can’t say enough about the job that Kyle did, to be able to pitch in all three games,” Cougars coach Pete Egbert said. “I think he threw 60 pitches (Friday), came back on no days rest and he wants the ball in a big spot. He’s a closer, but we’ll go to him in any spot.
“We went to him in the sixth inning because we felt like that was a critical time in the game. And he always rises to the occasion. If we were to play tomorrow, he’d tell me he’d want the ball again tomorrow. That’s just the type of personality he has.”
After a scoreless eighth, Newport put two runners on in the bottom of the ninth, but Melahn got a grounder and a strikeout to end the game.
Taylor Price earned the win in relief, entering with no outs and two runners on in the bottom of the fifth before keeping the deficit at 2-0.
Kenny Jarema reached base four times, including three walks, to extend his on-base streak to 34 consecutive games. Jarema, Kerwien and Shane Hughes (double) had the only hits for the Cougars.
Alejandro Santiago started on the mound for the Cougars and held Newport scoreless for the first four innings.