Seton Hill baseball team sweeps Mercyhurst, advances to NCAA Super Regional

Late Friday afternoon, SHU Baseball Complex on the campus of Seton Hill went eerily silent shortly after Mercyhurst stunned the 13th-ranked Griffins baseball team with a walk-off grand slam to send Seton Hill into the losers’ bracket at the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region II Tournament.

It meant the Griffins needed to win three games in two days to earn a spot in the upcoming Atlantic Super Region best-of-three series.

Well, they did it, and they’re moving on.

Max Mandler’s three-run homer highlighted a five-run first inning, Owen Sabol drove in four runs and Vincenzo Rauso pounded out three of Seton Hill’s 12 hits as the Griffins trounced Mercyhurst, 12-5, in their second game of the day Sunday to clinch a spot opposite host No. 7 Millersville at the Atlantic Super Region Tournament.

Seton Hill beat Mercyhurst, 4-0, in the first game behind eight strong innings from left-hander Andino Vecchiolla.

“It’s hard to put into words,” Seton Hill coach Marc Marizzaldi said. “What’s special about playing in huge games like these is looking out on that hillside and seeing all the support, especially from our alumni. I had 100 text messages after the (second) game.”

Related:

• Seton Hill CF Jack Whalen makes SportsCenter's No. 1 play with diving catch

Millersville won the Atlantic Region I Tournament championship Saturday, beating West Chester, 6-4, and setting up a showdown with Seton Hill on Friday and Saturday at Millersville.

The Atlantic Super Region series winner will advance to the Division II World Series from June 3-10 in Cary, N.C.

“I told our guys before the games today that the pressure was on the other team,” Marizzaldi said. “All they needed to do was win one. Sometimes, that’s more pressure to win one than two. You kind of have a nothing-to-lose attitude. I was impressed by how composed and consistent our guys were.”

After opening with a 14-6 victory over Shippensburg on Thursday, Seton Hill couldn’t hold onto a two-run lead Friday over Mercyhurst in the bottom of the ninth when the Lakers’ Luke Jackson slugged the winning grand slam to hand the Griffins an 8-6 defeat.

But Seton Hill (48-11) rebounded by eliminating East Stroudsburg, 10-4, on Saturday and sweeping Mercyhurst for some revenge on Sunday and establishing a school record for victories in the process.

“You couldn’t script it any better,” Marizzaldi said, ignoring Friday’s heartbreaking loss. “A shutout in Game 1 (Sunday) and then with the season on the line to put up a 5-spot in the first inning (in the second game), honestly it couldn’t be scripted any better. I’m just so proud of how competitive, composed and mature and how hard our guys played. It’s awesome.

“It feels great, especially the way we did it.”

Seton Hill scored all its runs in the first four innings of Sunday’s tournament-clinching victory. The Griffins scored five times in the first against Ryan Rafalski (2-2) and twice in the second on RBI singles by Sabol and Logan Vietmeier against Santino Campoli.

After Mercyhurst (30-17) got to starter Brandon Bergert for a run in the third — their first of the afternoon — on Mitch Grosch’s RBI single, Seton Hill scored four in the bottom half as the lead ballooned to 11-1.

“We threw the first punch and really took the wind out of their sails,” Marizzaldi said.

Sabol’s two-run single keyed the inning for the Griffins.

Mercyhurst (30-17) got another run in the fifth against Jared Dowey on an RBI fielder’s choice by Zach Kourous and another in the eighth on John Susnik’s solo homer off Caiden Wood, who also gave up Matt Christopher’s triple that resulted in a run in the ninth when Sabol committed a throwing error on a relay from Mandler in right and Christian Juchno’s two-out, solo home run before getting the final out.

Jack Laird (2-0), the second of four Seton Hill pitchers, retired three batters spanning the third and fourth innings to earn the victory.

In the opener, Vecchiolla (4-2), a junior from Laurel Highlands, pitched a career-high eight innings, blanking Mercyhurst on five hits, as the Griffins forced the fifth-and-deciding game for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division rivals.

Vecchiolla struck out six and walked one. He threw 104 pitches.

“I had all my pitches working for me today, and that helped me to be able to get ahead in the counts,” Vecchiolla said. “Having a defense we have makes it so easy to go out there and just throw strikes, knowing they have my back.”

Seton Hill’s outfield corps made several outstanding catches in the tournament, including one Saturday by center fielder Jack Whalen that earned the No. 1 highlight on ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10.

Mandler turned in another gem in Sunday’s first game preventing two runners from scoring in the sixth. But it was his first-inning home run that ignited the Griffins’ offense.

“I got a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it,” he said.

Blake Barker worked a scoreless ninth in relief of Vecchiolla in the first game for Seton Hill, which got seven hits, all against John Bufford Jr. (2-1), who pitched seven innings for Mercyhurst.

Seton Hill took a 1-0 lead in the first on Jack Oberdorf’s sacrifice fly, scoring Whalen. The Griffins made it 2-0 in the fourth on Braden Durham’s RBI single, scoring Mandler.

An inning later, Seton Hill tacked on a pair of runs and made the 4-0 lead stand the rest of the way.

Vietmeier grounded to the hole in short, where Christopher forced Oberdorf at second while Whalen and Joe Fiedor scored on the late relay throw to first by second baseman Grosch.

The Mercyhurst pitching staff, without injured right-hander Jarrett Heilman, wore thin during the three-day tournament that saw Seton Hill and Mercyhurst play a total of five games each.

Heilman, a Freeport graduate who earned Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division Pitcher of the Year, posted a 6-2 record and a conference-leading 1.38 ERA, third lowest in Division II.

He also missed the PSAC Tournament and hasn’t pitched since a four-hit 5-0 shutout of Seton Hill on May 4.

“He is the ultimate competitor and a relentless worker,” Mercyhurst coach Joe Spano said when the PSAC’s annual awards were announced May 9. “He’s been more than a pitcher for us. Jarrett was a leader all year.”