|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APPLETON BOUND ONCE AGAIN, PANTHERS CLINCH REGIONAL TITLE ABILENE, Texas – With its 4-3 win over Trinity University (Texas) on Saturday afternoon at Driggers Field, the Chapman University baseball team clinched its fourth consecutive NCAA Division III West Region championship. The Panthers will now travel to Appleton, Wisconsin next weekend to compete in the eight-team Division III national championships, which open Friday at Fox Cities Stadium. The regional championship is Chapman’s fifth in six years under head coach Tom Tereschuk. The Panthers placed fifth in last year’s national championships. Chapman (39-3) will head back to the finals on the strength of a regional sweep – winning four straight games in Texas. The Panthers never got too comfortable in Abilene, winning three of their four games by one run. Their only win decided by more than one run was a 5-3 victory over McMurry (Texas) in 12 innings. That includes Saturday’s 4-3 win which came courtesy of a complete game eight-hitter by sophomore RHP Matt Luzar. It was Luzar’s first career complete game, allowing three earned runs and striking out eight batters. The Panthers got on the board first and built a four-run lead. Senior IF Kyle Redding singled in a pair of runs with the bases loaded and two outs in the second inning. Senior OF Mike Vass followed in the third inning with his third home run in as many games, a solo shot that added to his school record with 14 this season. In the fourth, sophomore OF Ryan Prechtl made it 4-0 with an RBI double that plated sophomore OF Ryan Hall who had singled to lead off the inning. Luzar held the Tigers scoreless until the sixth inning when Trinity (35-15) pushed across a pair of runs in the sixth inning and one more in the eighth to make it 4-3. With Chapman closer Kurt Yacko having pitched 8 2/3 innings in three previous games in the tournament, Tereschuck stayed with Luzar with a one-run lead in the ninth and he retired the side 1-2-3 with a pair of strikeouts. The right-hander improved to 2-1 this season. Luzar, Vass and Patrick Ohail were named to the All-Tournament team, while Yacko (1-0, two saves, .316 avg.) was named Tournament MVP. Chapman, currently ranked No. 1 in Division III for 10 consecutive weeks, will face defending national champions Kean University (N.J.) in first game of the championship tournament on Friday at 10 a.m. (central). This will be the sixth meeting in two years between the coastal rivals, with Chapman having defeated the Cougars twice already in 2008, 19-2 and 1-0 in Orange. However, Kean had the final say at last year's championships sending the Panthers to the loser's bracket with a 3-1 loss. The Panthers have won 11 straight and 31 of 32 heading into the season’s final weekend. ### Game stats available online: |
|||||||||||
|
|
