MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - Millersville's banner season that included 44 wins, a record 29 home victories, a PSAC East title and a PSAC Championship came to an end on the final day of the NCAA Atlantic Regional with 7-4 and 8-2 losses to Seton Hill on Saturday.
Millersville topped the Griffins 7-2 on Friday and entered the day needing one win to advance to the Super Regional, but it was a day of missed opportunities for the Marauders, and for the Griffins, it was a day of capitalizing on mistakes. Seton Hill has ended Millersville's season in back-to-back years. and it moves on to the Super Regional for a third season in a row.
"We had them on the rocks a couple of times early in game one, and they made some big pitches," said Millersville head coach
Jon Shehan. "Give their guys credit.
In the day's first game, Millersville stranded 12 runners on base, including five in the final two frames. Millersville pulled to within a run at 3-2 in the top of the fifth but left three runners on base. The inability to pile on proved costly. Owen Henne hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the second, and an error extended the inning for Seton Hill to total four. The Marauders pulled back to within three runs, but Seton Hill reliever Zach Herb escaped with three Marauders on base in the eighth, and after
Matthew Williams singled and
Bren Taylor walked to start the ninth, Herb retired three in a row to end it.
"There were two pitches that could have changed things (in the eighth inning)," said Shehan. "They made two borderline pitches and got calls, and that changed game one around in my opinion. We left a lot of guys on base all day and couldn't get a big hit. I don't think we had a two-out hit all day. That was the difference."
Game two was a 0-0 affair into the seventh inning as starters
Garet Blankenbiller and Julian Minaya dueled. Minaya kept the Marauders without a hit through 4 2/3, and Blankenbiller battled for 6 1/3 before allowing a single. Millersville went to the bullpen, and a seeing-eye single from Colin Ahr that glanced off the glove of second baseman
Donis Rodriguez was followed by Gage Wheaton's pinch-hit bloop to right, giving Seton Hill its first run.
The Marauders stranded two in the seventh, and in the eighth, Seton Hill scored two unearned runs. Millersville's defense, which had been so stellar throughout the postseason, started to unravel. Two throwing errors led directly to Seton Hill runs. In the bottom of the inning,
Matthew Williams gave Millersville life, hitting his fifth home run of the postseason to pull Millersville within one. But in the ninth inning, Millersville hit the first batter, walked the second, threw the ball away on a bunt play, and walked another. With Millersville forced to pull in the infield, Seton Hill got back-to-back singles from Henne and Matt Frazetta, followed by two more walks.
"There was one inning all year that snowballed on us like that," said Shehan. "A couple of PFP opportunities, throwing miscues, lead-off hit batter, and walks, we didn't take care of the ball late in the game. Good teams are going to capitalize...We didn't execute and they did."
Millersville committed a season-high four errors and left eight more runners on base.
Millersville was the No. 1 seed in the region for the eighth time since 2011 and in the regional for the 12th season in a row. The 44 wins are the fifth-most in program history. Saturday's game was Millersville's ninth in 11 days, and eight were against California, the PSAC runner-up and the PSAC's batting average leader, and Seton Hill, which owns the nation's No. 1 ERA. It is the 12th consecutive season that the winner of the PSAC Tournament did not win the Atlantic Regional.
"I told them it's probably one of the most selfless teams I've coached," said Sheha. "They came to the ballpark every day ready to play for each other. A lot of guys come to the ballpark to play, but they came to play for each other. It's a special group. They had a lot of fun, sometimes borderline fun, but they competed really hard every day for each other."
