EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. - A gutsy steal of home with two outs in the seventh inning was the difference in Seton Hill sneaking out a 3-2 win over Millersville in Saturday's elimination round of the NCAA Atlantic Regional.
Griffins' center fielder Noah Sweeney significantly impacted the final innings with his speed. With Millersville left-hander
Rece Ritchey--making his first appearance since February--on the mound, Sweeney broke for home with two outs and runners on the corners. As Sweeney raced down the line, Ritchey fired home, but the ball glanced off the mitt of catcher
Keegan Soltis and ricocheted to the backstop. That run broke a 2-2 tie, and it was the only run scored over the final four innings.
In the bottom of the ninth, Sweeney dashed Millersville's hopes for a rally when he made a diving catch in the right-center field warning track, robbing
Justin Taylor of sure extra bases.
Seton Hill (38-15) kept its season alive and now must beat East Stroudsburg twice on Sunday to advance to the NCAA Super Regional. Millersville's season ended in its 11th consecutive Atlantic Regional with a 38-16 record.
The fortuitous bounce and timely hit that had eluded the injury-riddle Marauders over a final month in which it went 9-11 and lost five games by two runs or fewer never came.
"This goes back four or five weeks," said Millersville head coach
Jon Shehan. "We knew we had holes. You look at the lineup and guys aren't healthy. We are playing guys out of position. You are trying to figure it out. We got exposed. There are certain things that don't happen if we were at full strength. But I'm proud of the guys for battling through what they did this year."
In addition to the two plays made by Sweeney, the Marauders had lead-off walks erased with double plays in the fifth and eighth innings and stranded two runners in the bottom of the seventh. Meanwhile, Seton Hill's first runs--a two-out, two-run homer from Owen Mandler in the fifth--followed a weakly hit single from Jack Oberdorf that would have been a certain ground out had second baseman
Mark McNelly not been shifted behind the base.
"It's been that way the last few weeks," said Shehan. "In the West Chester series, we were three or four pitches away from walking out of there with three of four games. This is a hard game, and you can't control so many of the variables. A lot of things were out of our control in the last couple of games. But I tip my cap to (Seton Hill). They put pressure on us, and on the first and third play, we didn't execute."
After
Hunter Stevens' two-run double in the second innings, Millersville did not score and mustered just one hit--a
Matthew Williams double with two outs in the eighth. Seton Hill starter Jon McCullough (6-1) allowed two runs and walked four while striking out seven in 6 2/3 innings. Ian Korn picked up his second save of the season by working the final 2 1/3 innings.
Millersville starter
Conor Cook received a no-decision after scattering three hits and four walks with six strikeouts over six innings.
Stevens reached base three times as he added two walks to his double.
Millersville started its 2024 season 18-3 with four wins over nationally ranked opponents and a program record for its best start to PSAC East play. The Marauders climbed all the way to No. 2 in the ABCA Division II Poll on March 20. But injuries to both of the team's catchers, series missed by middle-of-the-order hitters like Williams and
Mark McNelly, and the unavailability of several key pitchers finally caught up with the team in mid-April. After starting 37-9, Millersville dropped seven of its final eight games and held a lead in the fifth inning or later in five of them. Still, the Marauders continued the region's longest active streak of consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances--a streak topped by only two other programs in Division II.
"I told the staff going into the regional that our goal every year is to win a national championship," said Shehan. "I don't want it to sound negative, but I don't think we had the team to win it this year because of all the injuries we had. If we had some guys available, it's a different story. Our drive as a staff is to always get better. The inconsistency of the consistency is that you are trying to improve and trying to find the nuances that others aren't. We'll get there."
