College baseball: Misericordia tops Wisconsin-Whitewater, 12-9, in Game 1 of Division III College World Series final

Misericordia is one win away from winning its first Division III College Baseball World Series.

The Cougars outslugged Wisconsin-Whitewater in a 12-9 game June 4 to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series at Classic Auto Group Park.

Game 2 is at 11 a.m. June 6, with Game 3 (if necessary) 45 minutes after the completion of the first game.

“The job isn’t done,” Cougars coach Pete Egbert said. “We came here to do one thing. I want them to stay hungry. We haven’t done anything yet. … We poked the bear tonight. (Whitewater) is upset. They’re not going to lie down.”

All week, Egbert has said his Cougars (43-10) had to play an aggressive style of ball, scratching and clawing for runs, stealing bases and taking extra bases on their hits. Even after the win over Whitewater, Egbert said, “We’re not going to win slugfests.”

Only this time, his team did just that, outhitting the Warhawks, 16-12 — a Wisconsin-Whitewater team that came into the game third in the nation in batting average while leading the nation in hits and runs scored.

Misericordia got three hits form Brock Bollinger and Gabe Bunn, while Garrett McIlhenney, Jack Regenye, Jason Sanfilippo and Andrew Van Horn all had a pair of base-knocks to put their team one win away from the national title that no team from Pennsylvania has ever won before.

“They outhit us and outplayed us,” Warhawks coach John Vonderlich said bluntly. “We’re hoping we can change that in a couple of days.”

While Wisconsin-Whitewater took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on Adam Cootway’s majestic homer to left, his fifth of the year, Misericordia came back with a vengeance, scoring five in the second and five more in the fourth to take a 10-2 lead.

The second-inning rally was highlighted by a two-run double to left by Bollinger and an infield chopper RBI by Regenye. Two innings later, a two-run single by Van Horn and back-to-back bases-loaded walks by Sanfilippo and Joe Comins upped the ante to 10-2.

“It felt good to really jump on them early and get the ball rolling for the rest of the guys,” Bollinger said.

Wisconsin-Whitewater wasn’t done. The Warhawks put six runs on the board in the top of the fifth with Eli Frank hitting a two-run homer — his 14th of the season — and Andy Thies ripping an RBI single to keep their team in the game.

Then Egbert summoned Matt Lanzendorf from the bullpen — and things changed immensely in the offensive slugfest. Lanzendorf pitched four innings, giving up only one unearned run, to keep Wisconsin-Whitewater at a safe distance. Lanzendorf started a game June 3 against Lynchburg, pitching 3 1/3 innings. His coach didn’t think he’d be available a day later.

He was wrong.

“He told me he was available,” Egbert said. “I didn’t believe him. I didn’t trust him. I saw that look in his eyes and knew we could go to him, and he was incredible.”

Said Lanzendorf, “When I come to the field, I have the determination and I’m ready to play every day for this team.”

Despite the loss, the Warhawks remain confident in winning two games on June 6 to win their first national title since 2014. Wisconsin-Whitewater is 12-0 in doubleheaders this season.

“I don’t think there is a reset,” Sam Paden said. “We were ready to go and things didn’t go our way. We take Game 1, we’re gonna take Game 2. It’s as simple as that.”

Egbert said his Misericordia team expects a challenge.

“They’ve got their two dudes on the mound,” he said, noting Cade Berendt and Michael Hilker Jr., who pitched Wisconsin-Whitewater’s first two World Series games. “We know that. We’ve got to keep our heads down and keep working.”

THE SCORE

Misericordia 12, Wisconsin-Whitewater 9