Published: May 14, 2008 11:24 pm            

Engineers get first-ever NCAA baseball victory by topping Calvin 4-0

TERRE HAUTE — When he came out of the dugout and strolled toward the mound, Rose-Hulman coach Jeff Jenkins knew he wasn’t going to take starter Derek Eitel out of the game. Even though Jenkins said Eitel was “running on fumes and that Calvin College had the bases loaded with the tying run coming up to the plate in the ninth inning.

Jenkins wasn’t going to hook Eitel, but even so, Eitel made sure Jenkins knew where he stood as far as staying in the game.

“We’ve had a couple of situations earlier in the year where I’ve come out in that type of spot. I went to him after those games and told him I look to those situations to step it up and shut it down,” Eitel said. “He took heed of that, but still, the G-rated version of what I said [Wednesday] was, ‘I’m not coming out of the game. It’s my game.’”

Eitel repaid Jenkins’ faith in him by getting out of the bases-loaded jam unscathed. Eitel’s three-hit, 13-strikeout shutout performance helped Rose-Hulman win its first-ever NCAA tournament baseball game as the Engineers beat Calvin 4-0.

Eitel said he’s never felt adrenaline in a baseball game the way he did on Wednesday. He had an inkling it would be a good day for him in pregame warm-ups.

“I had good stuff in the bullpen, and that’s usually a good indication of how the night’s going to go,” said Eitel, a Marshall, Ill. native. “The change-up was the key for me. It was really good for me tonight.”

Eitel credited Rose-Hulman catcher Keenan Long for calling a game that helped Eitel take advantage of an effective curveball and fastball. Eitel mixed his pitches well from the start and Calvin (32-9) was never able to get a good read on him. Of Eitel’s 13 strikeouts, which was a career-high, a whopping seven were called looking as the frustrated Knights only had runners in scoring position in the ninth inning.

“When his curveball is that dominant, you really have to guess, because then he’d snap a fastball in there and it would catch the outside corner. They were frozen,” Jenkins said.

The Engineers (32-13) broke open a pitcher’s duel in the fourth. A Keenan Long walk and Tim Tepe doubled down the left field line which brought Michael Matsui up with no outs. He hit the first pitch from Nate Pocock up the middle for a two-run single. Rose-Hulman couldn’t cash in any more runs, but led 2-0.

Two more runs were tacked on in the fifth. Andrew Bilse’s one-out double was followed after a pop out by subsequent walks by Long and Tepe to bring up Matsui in another run-scoring situation. With two outs and a full count, Matsui dropped a single into shallow right-center, scoring Long and Tepe to make it 4-0.

“You got the sense he was he was hesitant between pitches, like he didn’t want to throw the ball. That’s to the hitter’s advantage. He got the ball up and I poked it into right field,” Matsui said.

Calvin’s only threat came in the ninth when Eitel sandwiched a hit batsman around a pair of walks with one out. Eitel retired Pieter Groot and Drew Johnson looking to put Calvin on the brink of elimination.

Eitel’s nine-inning performance bodes well for the Engineers for the remainder of the tournament as all of its remaining pitchers will be fresh.

“We didn’t burn a pitcher and we get an extra pitcher for tonight. We can extend everyone else. We can have a shorter leash if we need to with Michael [Matsui],” Jenkins said.

A crowd of 525 watched the game, believed to be one of the largest in Art Nehf Field history. It was a cherry on the sundae for the Rose-Hulman baseball team on a historic night.

“I don’t think we could have put ourselves in a better situation,” Matsui said. “It was a lot of fun. We had a ton of crowd support. I don’t know if it gets any better for Division III baseball than it does here.”

Rose-Hulman, which had lost its previous four NCAA tournament games, will play No. 5-seeded Adrian at 7 p.m. tonight. Adrian upset No. 2-seeded Wooster 4-3 in the second of Wednesday’s three NCAA regional games. Adrian won in the bottom of the ninth when Bobby Rickstad hit a two-out, RBI single.

No. 1-seeded Heidelberg cruised in the opening game, beating Transylvania 10-3.



Rose-Hulman 4, Calvin 0

RHIT ab r h bi CC ab r h bi

Bilse rf 5 1 3 0 Gurznski 2b 4 0 0 0

Kent 3b 5 0 0 0 Vriesman lf 4 0 0 0

Long c 3 2 0 0 Schepel ss 3 0 0 0

Tepe ss 3 1 2 0 Fletcher c 4 0 1 0

Matsui 2b 4 0 2 4 Blklidge 1b 2 0 0 0

Thompsn dh 3 0 0 0 May 3b 3 0 1 0

Focke lf 4 0 3 0 Marcus rf 3 0 0 0

Kovacs cf 2 0 0 0 Groot dh 3 0 0 0

Decker 1b 3 0 0 0 Johnson cf 4 0 1 0

Totals 32 4 10 4 Totals 30 0 3 0

Rose-Hulman 000 220 000 — 4

Calvin 000 000 000 — 0

E — Matsui. DP — RHIT 1, CC 2. LOB — RHIT 8, CC 9. 2B — Bilse, Tepe, Focke. SH — Thompson, Kovacs. SB — Johnson

IP H R ER BB SO

Rose-Hulman

Eitel (W, 9-3) 9 3 0 0 5 13

Calvin

Pocock (L, 8-2) 42⁄3 7 4 4 4 2

VanOpstal 31⁄3 2 0 0 1 3

LaForest 1 1 0 0 0 0

HBP — by Eitel (May). BK — Pocock.

T — 2:10. A — 525.

Next — Rose-Hulman (32-13) will play Adrian (31-10) at 7 p.m. tonight in an NCAA Division III regional game. Transylvania (31-13) will play Wooster (34-10) in an elimination game at Noon. Heidelberg (38-8) will play Calvin (32-9) at 3:30 p.m. If Calvin loses, it is eliminated.



NCAA Division III

Baseball Regional

At Rose-Hulman

Wednesday's scores

No. 1 Heidelberg 10, No. 6 Transylvania 3

No. 5 Adrian 4, No. 2 Wooster 3

No. 4 Rose-Hulman 4, No. 3 Calvin 0

Today's games

No. 6 Transylvania vs. No. 4 Wooster, Noon

No. 1 Heidelberg vs. No. 3 Calvin, 3:30 p.m.

No. 5 Adrian vs. No. 4 Rose-Hulman, 7 p.m.

        

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