Auburn, N.Y. – The third-seeded Rensselaer Red Hawks (35-10) rallied for a 9-6 win over the seventh-seeded Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops (29-18) in Thursday’s fourth and final game of the NCAA Division III baseball regional tournament hosted by Ithaca College at Auburn’s Falcon Park. Rensselaer advances to play top-seeded Cortland Friday at 4:30 p.m. The Battling Bishops will take on fifth-seeded Eastern Connecticut at 1:15 p.m. in an elimination game.
Senior first baseman Ken Carroll broke a 6-6 tie with a three-run home run in the top of the eighth to cap Rensselaer’s rally. The Red Hawks scored the last eight runs of the game after Ohio Wesleyan’s six-run outburst in the fifth gave the Battling Bishops a 6-1 lead.
Carroll’s home run made a winner out of freshman Tyler Agneta, who retired 13 of the 14 batters he faced (he hit a batter). It followed one-out walks to sophomore catcher Patrick Reardon and sophomore left fielder Camden Mamigonian. Mamigonian and senior shortstop Matt Muscatiello both had three hits. All but one Rensselaer batter had a hit.
Rensselaer tied the game with four runs in the sixth and one in the seventh. Junior center fielder Sean Wilkes drove in two runs with a bases-loaded double to start the Red Hawks’ sixth-inning rally. Junior third baseman Jim Devine followed with an RBI groundout and Reardon doubled in a run.
An inning later, freshman second baseman Don Stroud walked and scored the tying run on a dropped fly ball off the bat of Muscatiello.
Ohio Wesleyan was held to five hits; the Battling Bishops collected four of them in the fifth when they scored all six of their runs. Senior Joey McDaniel hit a two-run single, sophomore third baseman Eric McComas drove in two runs with a double, junior shortstop Logan Hronis hit a sacrifice fly and senior center fielder Brent Wilkins added a run-scoring single.
