Adrian College baseball takes part in NCAA Division III tournament

BEREA, Ohio — Nic Bruder delivered the hit of the season for the Adrian College baseball team as it beat Catholic 9-8 on Sunday to claim an NCAA Division III regional title at Baldwin Wallace.

The freshman from Centreville, Ohio, stepped up to the plate with the Bulldogs trailing 8-6 and the bases loaded with no outs when hit a deep ball to right-center field for a walk-off, bases-clearing double.

"It's something we've been working toward all season long," AJ Miranda said. "Back when we got on campus in August. Working hard every day for this moment. I don't think it has actually hit me yet."

A walk-off looked to be the furthest for Adrian to start the final as the Bulldogs jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Miranda hit a two-run home run in the first and a two-run double in the third to jumpstart the offense. Meanwhile Daniel Gutierrez tossed four shutout innings.

Catholic rallied, chasing Gutierrez out of the game in the fifth inning and tied it up, 5-5, in the fifth before Ryan Davis hit a two-out RBI single to take the lead back in the bottom half.

The Cardinals rallied in the top of the eighth, loading the bases with no outs and tying the game, before Hudson 2023 graduate Ambrose Horwath took the mound. Catholic took the lead for the first time, but Horwath limited the damage to an 8-6 deficit.

After the Bulldogs went down in order in the bottom of the eighth, Horwath worked around a leadoff walk to keep the game, 8-6, going into the bottom of the ninth.

David Kedrow and Easton Rogers started the bottom of the ninth, but the rally died down with a pop up and flyout. Linken Hayward walked to load the bases and set up Bruder's moment.

"We competed from inning one to inning nine," Adrian coach Craig Rainey said. "The dugout was there, the role guys were there and the guys in the lineup stepped up. We had some guys come into the ninth inning that hadn't played all weekend."

Horwath got the win, going two innings with no earned runs, no hits and one walk.

"We played a few freshmen out there and it was a big stage for them," Rainey said. "But if you don't run them out there, you won't know what they're capable of or what they'll do on the big stage. They kept us where we needed to be and gave us a chance."

Adrian will play in the NCAA Division III super regional against Randolph-Macon on Friday and Saturday. The two will meet at Noon Friday in Ashland, Viriginia for Game 1 while Game 2 will be 11 a.m. Saturday and Game 3, if necessary, will be 3 p.m.

"We're excited to get to go play more ball," Miranda said.

The Bulldogs got in the driver's seat of the regional after dominating No. 4 Penn State Behrend on Saturday, 12-1.

Jaxon Clark had an impressive outing on the mound, going 6 ⅔ innings and giving up a run, on four hits and four walks while striking out six.

By the time Clark gave up the run, the damage was done by the Bulldogs at the plate.

Bruder hit his second home run of the tournament as he went 2-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs while Kedrow went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two doubles, Joe Casale had two hits with a double, two runs and an RBI and Rolando Jimenez had two hits with a double and two RBIs. Davis had two hits with two RBIs.

"We talk about continuing to grind every day and showing up and playing hard," Rainey said. "I thought we did the little things very well (Saturday)."

Adrian knocked off No. 2 Catholic, 5-2, to begin play on Friday.

Jakob Charles worked his way through six innings, giving up two runs, on nine hits and a walk while striking out five. Adrian rallied in the top of the eighth for three runs to take 4-2 lead and added an insurance home run from Bruder in the ninth.

"We knew we were going to have to grind it out and find some innings to get some runs on the board," Rainey said. "We capitalized. We know the whole weekend is going to be a grind."

Davis went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI while Casale went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs and Bruder finished with two hits as well.

Lincoln Lipinski (Onsted) got the win as he tossed a 1-2-3 seventh inning with a strikeout before getting two outs in the eighth. Luc St. Antoine got the four-out save with a bases loaded strikeout in the eighth.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Adrian College baseball takes part in NCAA Division III tournament