May 27, 2008

Box Score

APPLETON, WI - A pair of bases loaded walks with two outs in the bottom of the ninth gave Trinity College a 5-4 victory over the Johns Hopkins baseball team in the National Championship game on Tuesday afternoon at the College World Series. Hopkins had won 4-3 in the first game of the day, snapping Trinity's 44-game win streak and forcing the decisive second game. The Blue Jays finish the season with a record of 42-8 as junior right-hander Chez Angeloni (Jenkintown, PA/La Salle College HS) was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Joining Angeloni on the all-tournament team were seniors Todd Emr (Westwood, NJ/Saddle River Day), Matt Benchener (Newtown, PA/Holy Ghost Prep), Ryan Kealy (Ardsley, NY/Ardsley) and Jon Solomon (Fairfax, VA/Riverdale Baptist).

Trailing 4-3 heading to the bottom of the ninth, Trinity got back-to-back one out singles to put runners on first and third. After the Blue Jays got the second out of the inning, Chandler Barnard drew an intentional walk to load the bases. Matthew Sullivan drew a walk on a 3-2 count to force in the tying run and Guy Gogliettino followed that with a walk of his own to force in the winning run and give Trinity its first national championship.

Hopkins came into the day needing two wins against an unbeaten Trinity team to capture its first national championship. In the first game, trailing 3-2 heading to the sixth, senior catcher Tony Margve (Randolph, NJ/Randolph) singled and scored on Benchener's single. Tied at 3-3 in the top of the ninth, sophomore DH Chris Huisman (Davidsonville, MD/Archbishop Spalding) led off with a double down the right field line and senior Isaac Katz (Merion, PA/Lower Merion) came into run for Huisman. Benchener advanced Katz to third on a sacrifice bunt and after senior second baseman Nate Adelman (Redwood City, CA/Menlo School) struck out, the ball got away from the catcher allowing Katz to scamper home with the winning run. Angeloni shut down the Bantams in the ninth for the victory.

Angeloni threw a complete game, his second of the tournament. He allowed three runs on nine hits with eight strikeouts.

In the second game, Trinity jumped out to the 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Sullivan had an RBI triple and Timothy Bourdon lifted a sacrifice fly to the outfield. The Blue Jays got one back in the third as Benchener led off with a home run to left field.

In the eighth inning, the Blue Jays got two men on with two outs. Senior center fielder Rob Pietroforte (Brooklyn, NY/Berkeley Carroll) then ripped a triple down the right field line to put the Blue Jays on top 3-2.

Trinity answered with a single run in the bottom of the eighth to make it a 3-3 game. That was the only damage done as sophomore Matt Wiegand (San Diego, CA/La Jolla) got Ryan Piacentini to fly out to center field with the bases loaded.

In the top of the ninth, Margve led off with a single and moved to third on Solomon's single through the right side. Benchener then came through with a sacrifice fly to score Margve, putting Hopkins up 4-3 heading to the bottom of the ninth.

Wiegand took the loss as he surrendered two runs in his one inning of work. Kealy pitched five stellar innings of relief work, allowing just one run. Regan got the win for Trinity as he threw 1.1 innings of relief work and allowed just one run.

Benchener had four RBIs and finished 4-for-6 on the day while Pietroforte knocked in two runs in game-two. Emr was 2-for-4 in game one while Margve scored two runs in that contest.

The Blue Jays graduate 16 seniors from this year's squad that finished with the most wins in school history. The seniors finish with a four year record of 140-37-2 (.787) with an NCAA Runner-Up finish, two regional title game appearances and two Centennial Conference Championships.

- 30 -