Published: May 12, 2009 11:49 pm         

Rose baseball no longer new kid on block in tough D-III regional

TERRE HAUTE — Rose-Hulman’s baseball team went through its pledgeship, in a manner of speaking, last year.

Today, when the 31-12 Engineers play Heidelberg at noon in the opening game of the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional at Adrian, Mich., they should feel like full-fledged members of the fraternity of teams who seem to show up for regional play every year.

“Last year we hadn’t been [to a Division III regional] in 12 years,” coach Jeff Jenkins of the Engineers explained earlier this week. “We didn’t really know what to expect.

“But we won a game [4-0 over Calvin] and we were knocking on the door in two other games [a 4-3 loss to eventual regional champion Adrian, then an 11-8 elimination loss to Wooster],” Jenkins added. “So we hope we go in [today] saying, ‘We know all these teams, and when we play well we’re right there with them.’ ”

The regional is no small task for the Engineers.

Not only will they be missing some valuable class time [“We probably work hard at it as any team in the country,” Jenkins said], but they’re in probably the best Division III regional in the country.

Five of the six teams have won at least 30 games. Four of them are repeaters from last year’s regional, and one that isn’t — Marietta — probably still has players who were on its national championship team in 2006.

A prestigious fraternity indeed, you might say.

“This is old hat to the Woosters, the Adrians and the Mariettas,” Jenkins said.

On the other hand, the Engineers belong in this company. They are seeded sixth primarily because their non-conference schedule is a little harder to fill than the slates of the teams who are closer to each other.

“We won’t play a lot of in-region games,” explained Jenkins, who is also the Rose-Hulman athletic director. “Because there are so many Division III teams in Ohio and Michigan, those teams don’t have to travel very far [for competition] … but it’s difficult for us to get a non-conference competitive schedule.”

On the other hand, Rose-Hulman merely has to win today’s game to get the benefit of the schedule that by design is favorable for the No. 1 seed.

“The difference between [teams in] this field is minute,” Jenkins predicted, “although I guess we’ll find out [in the 1-vs.-6 game today].”

Pitching and defense is the strength of the Engineers, their coach said. Derek Eitel (9-1, 2 saves) will get the start on the mound today, backed by an infield that’s turned a school-record 54 double plays in its first 43 games. Gannon Sedzeck (6-3), Nick Maloney (6-1) and Nick Rumpke (5-0) are other big winners on a staff that’s well rested and ready to go.

But the hitting isn’t shabby either. Shortstop Tim Tepe and catcher Keenan Long have combined for 17 homers, with Tepe batting .500 for the year and Long .355, but those thumpers have help from Chris Stemple (.420), Andrew Bilse (.374), Chandler Kent (.340) and Kreigh Williams (.328). The team’s only seniors, Michael Cramer (.303) and Andrew Pinkstaff (.300) also contribute.

Just about everybody does, in fact.

“I think almost all of these guys contributed to the regional [games] last year,” Jenkins said.

The closeness of the 2008 competition gives Jenkins the feeling that little things could be decisive this week.

“It’ll be the team who makes the least amount of mistakes [that will win],” he predicted. “We want to win the freebie war — walks, hit batters, stolen bases, errors, passed balls, wild pitches, all of those are freebies. And when we win the freebie war, we usually win the game.”



NCAA Division III Mideast regional

At Adrian, Mich.

Today

Game 1 — Heidelberg vs. Rose-Hulman, noon

Game 2 — Wooster vs. Concordia (Ill.), 3:30 p.m.

Game 3 — Marietta vs. Adrian, 7 p.m.

Thursday

Game 4 — Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, noon

Game 5 — Game 1 winner vs. Game 3 loser, 3:30 p.m.

Game 6 — Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, 7 p.m.

Friday

To be determined by outcome of Game 5