Seton Hill bounced from World Series
LEWISTON, Idaho -- The strength of this season's Seton Hill baseball team had been its durable rotation of starting pitchers.
The Griffins' starters recorded 22 complete games and carried their team to the NAIA World Series.
But in Idaho, that steadiness vanished. A pair of first-inning breakdowns were Seton Hill's undoing in the national tournament.
On Saturday morning, Auburn-Montgomery of Alabama struck for seven runs in the opening frame and cruised to a 14-9 win over the Griffins in front of 415 spectators at Harris Field.
Seton Hill pitcher Rick Austin walked the first two batters, then allowed a bunt single that loaded the bases.
The Senators capitalized with a two-run single from Michael Herndon and a three-run homer from Travis Granberry.
Austin was lifted before the inning was over. Like Matt Nelson in Friday's loss to Concordia, Austin wasn't at his best.
"What we were counting on keeping us in games, our starting pitching, basically took us right out of two games," Griffins coach Marc Marizzaldi said. "Kind of unexpected. ... Those were our top two starters all year. We thought they would at least give us a chance to win."
Seton Hill finishes the season at 45-20. This was the baseball club's final game as an NAIA team. All of the school's teams will join NCAA Division II next year.
Auburn-Montgomery starter Jarod Cook kept the Griffins in check during his six-inning stint. The 6-foot-5 righty allowed six hits and four runs, three of which were earned. The Senators led, 12-4, when he departed.
Once Cook was out of the picture, the Griffins made a charge. They struck for five runs in the eighth, with Rick Smykla splintering a two-run single.
"We gave them an opportunity to get right back in the ballgame," Auburn-Montgomery coach Q.V. Lowe said, "which you can't do in the World Series, you can't do against good ballclubs. You gotta stay focused all the time. If you're up 40-0 or 50-0, you stay focused and you throw strikes, and we didn't do that."
But the Griffins' threat never got serious. They loaded the bases in the ninth with two outs, but Auburn-Montgomery pitcher Brandon Ware got a swinging strikeout from Smykla to end the game.
After their early fireworks, the Senators seemed capable of invoking the 10-run rule, which would have ended the game after the seventh inning. But Seton Hill fought off that dubious finish.
"I think it was just a matter of pride," Marizzaldi said. "Our guys really embarrassed themselves in the way they came out, and they had enough pride to say, 'Hey, we didn't come all the way out here just to fold.' ... It was just too big of a deficit to make up."
Seton Hill was the first team eliminated from the 10-team competition.
"It seemed like as soon as we got here and started to catch up on our sleep and get back on our regular time clock, we've got to hit the road," Marizzaldi said. "We'll get some more jet lag on the way home. I guess that's the price you pay for not winning."
