Seton Hill falls into elimination bracket at Division II World Series

CARY, N.C. — It took the Seton Hill baseball team five innings to get its first hit against Angelo State at the Division II College World Series on Tuesday.

But even after the Griffins’ bats finally awoke, the hits still didn’t come at the right times.

Coach Marc Marizzaldi’s second-seeded team fell behind early and, despite threatening several times during the middle innings, couldn’t make the most of the chances it got on the way to a 9-4 loss to the third-seeded Rams in a winners’ bracket game at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.

SHU will have to work its way back through the losers’ bracket of the double-elimination national championship tournament, starting with a matchup against Wingate at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

“I thought we came out a little bit flat offensively and got behind early,” Marizzaldi said. “As much as I’d like to say we showed some fight on our way back, we had some decent at-bats but left a lot of guys on base and really didn’t cash in on the limited opportunities we had.”

Runs figured to be at a premium in a game featuring the teams with the two best earned run averages in Division II this season. But the expected pitchers’ duel never materialized, thanks to an Angelo State lineup doing the same kind of two-out damage Seton Hill did to Southern New Hampshire in its opening round win on Sunday.

Angelo State (44-7) scored twice in the third and four times in the fourth against Griffins starter Ben Vincini to build an early 6-0 lead. And they did it in methodical fashion by putting together a string of singles, bunts and heads-up baserunning.

Only two of the Rams’ 13 hits went for extra bases.

“We were coming into this game expecting a lot more small ball from Angelo State,” Marizzaldi said. “They bunt a ton and steal a ton of bases. They didn’t really have to do that. They had some really clutch hits. They just really killed us with some singles up the middle. They beat us in a different way.”

Hits of any kind were scarce for Seton Hill in the early going, with Angelo State starter Matt Szabo striking out six in his first four innings of work.

The Griffins (39-7) finally broke through in the fifth on a solid single to left by third baseman Jack Oberdorf and scored two runs in both that inning and the sixth to pull to within 6-4.

But they could have done even more damage had they been able to deliver key hits with runners in scoring position as they did two nights earlier.

All four of Seton Hill’s runs came without putting the ball in play: on bases-loaded walks to Owen Sabol and Derek Orndorff in the fifth and Canice Ejoh in the sixth, followed by a wild pitch that scored Tommy Pellis.

The Griffins finished with seven hits while striking out 12 times.

“In terms of the big situations, it’s knowing where the pressure is at,” said Pellis, who had two of the hits. “It’s not really on us, it’s more so on the defense and being able to capitalize the other day was a difference maker. Not being able to today was also a difference maker, obviously.”

Seton Hill’s chances at a late rally ended in the eighth, when Angelo State strung together a hit batsman, a sacrifice bunt and three hits together for a back-breaking three-run rally that put the game away.

“That’s been a strength of this team, whenever we are pushed we bounce right back,” Rams coach Kevin Brooks said. “We’re sort of like an anaconda. We squeeze you a little bit, then keep squeezing you, adding a run or two here … and try to lengthen that lead.”