CARY, N.C. – Cal State San Bernardino pieced together an inexplicable rally in the bottom of the ninth, scoring three runs without a hit, shocking and eliminating Millersville from the NCAA Championship by a 6-5 score.
 
Millersville pulled off its own dramatic comeback in the top of the ninth, getting a two-run single from Matthew Williams and a bunt single RBI from Bren Taylor to build a 5-3 advantage. The bullpen that had made Millersville 28-0 when leading after eight innings needed three outs. Instead, four walks, a hit batsman, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly gave the Yotes a remarkable come-from-behind win against a pitching staff that led the nation in WHIP entering the game.
 
"I'm proud of our team," said Millersville head coach Jon Shehan. "We battled to the end. I thought we pulled one out there, but we just didn't execute pitches in the last inning."
 
Millersville had been 10-for-10 in save opportunities and had Nate Young and his three saves on the mound to start the inning. The 6-0 Evan Rishell and Kris Pirozzi's three saves waited in the bullpen. After a fly ball out to start the inning, it unraveled. Walks to the No. 7 and No. 8 hitters put the winning run at the plate, and brought Rishell to the mound. No. 9 hitter, Riley Parker drew his second walk of the game to load the bases. Rishell's inside pitch to Jason Shedlock glanced off his right thigh, cutting Millersville's lead to one. Millersville turned to Pirozzi with the bases loaded and one out. His third pitch Deshawn Johnson was up in the zone and glanced off the glove of catcher Cole Houser. The tying run raced home from third, and after intentionally walking Johnson, Ruiz lifted a fly ball to right field, deep enough to score the winning run.
 
"It's bound to happen if you play baseball long enough," said Shehan. "Rish and Young have been so good, especially throwing strikes. You look at the situations Rish got us out of in the regional a couple weeks ago. He's our guy. He's been our guy. He's got All-America-type numbers. He's the guy we want on the mound in those situations, and Nate's been really good. It's too bad how it worked out, but I don't think we'd do it any differently."
 
The Marauders leaned heavily on its bullpen in the run to an Atlantic Regional championship, not having a starting pitcher work five innings in five-straight postseason games until Colby Gromlich gave them the performance of his young career against Cal State San Bernardino on Wednesday. Gromlich had not pitched more than 4 1/3 innings all season and had never pitched more than six in his 22 career appearances. Gromlich tossed 7 2/3, allowing one earned run on four hits. He was brilliant for 100-plus pitches, but his 104^th was lined for a two-run double by Giovanni Del Negro, momentarily erasing Millersville's 2-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth. 


 
Gromlich took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. It was No. 8 hitter Jake Borst's leadoff double that broke up the bid. Borst scored on Shedlock RBI single, and it was that section of the lineup that haunted the Marauders later in the game.
 
"Remarkable story with this guy," said Shehan of Gromlich. "In January, he was 92-95 and looked like an ace and a draft guy. He had to get double hernia surgery. Just to see his progression this year, coming back, inching his way back. It's not a surprise. He was exactly where he needed to be, where he wanted to be and did exactly what he wanted to do today. I couldn't be more proud of him."
 
Millersville had made it habit of rallying from behind in the NCAA Tournament. They won four-straight games in which they trailed early. It was 0-0 in the sixth when Justin Taylor continued his marvelous postseason run with a two-run homer to right field. Eleven of his 17 RBIs on the season came in the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Marauders' brief time holding the lead in the ninth started when Keegan Soltis flared a leadoff single to right. With one out, Cole Houser singled and moved up on the throw in from the outfield, putting two in scoring position. Williams was 2-for-27 in the postseason entering the at-bat, but after lining a curveball just foul on the first pitch. He rifled a low liner to left center on another off-speed pitch. Both Marauders scored for a 4-3 lead.
 
"I told him that (the pitcher) wasn't getting the breaking ball across, so he needed to be on time with the fastball. He got two hanging breaking balls. It's been great to see Matthew's development, going from a young freshman to developing an approach and capitalizing on it at the end of the year."
 
"You have that high in the top of the ninth, and like coach said, we just didn't execute in the bottom," said Williams. "Obviously, it's not a good feeling. It was satisfying to get the hit, but at the end of the day we didn't win the ballgame."
 
Not lost in the defeat was Thomas Caufield tying the single-season program record with his 24^th double of the season, and Bren Taylor recording two more hits to finish his season with a .426 average and a career average of .409—the best of any player in program history with at least three seasons played. Jimmy Losh capped his career with a school record 221 runs scored.
 
Millersville finished with a 46-10 record for the second-most wins in program history.
 
"For Thomas, this was the fourth school he had been to, and I think he found a home," said Shehan. "It's a place that he'll call family. A guy like Jimmy Losh, he'll be a phenomenal coach, and I look forward to working with him. The upper classmen that finished the game, it will be tough for them to get over this one, but they capitalized by getting here. That's been a goal from day one for the guys, especially the fifth-year guys who had to go through COVID. It's been a great year. It provides some motivation for the younger guys too.
 
"I'm really proud of the year we had, and we learned a lot about our club here," said Shehan. "We have a young staff returning, and I'm excited to start working on next year tomorrow."