Regional Loss Ends Season for Top-Seeded Chapman

Chapman, the top-seeded team in the NCAA Division III West Regional baseball tournament, won’t be making a return trip to the World Series.

Host McMurry University ended the Panthers’ season with a 7-4 victory Friday at Walt Driggers Field. Chapman had lost to Cal Lutheran, 7-1, in the first round Thursday.

That makes three straight losses to finish the season and four consecutive postseason setbacks for the Panthers (29-13), who lost their first two games in the 1997 NCAA Division III World Series.

McMurry pitcher James Wollscheid (6-2) recovered from a shaky start and pitched a complete game. He gave up eight hits, walked five--four in the first four innings--and struck out 11, one shy of the school record he set earlier this season.

The Panthers took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a two-run single by Jason Moeller, but they were limited to single runs in the fifth and sixth. Rob O’Brien had an RBI double in the fifth and Matt Barcelona singled to drive in the run in the sixth.

McMurry (32-14) had 12 hits off three Chapman pitchers, scoring five unearned runs off starter Richard Torres (4-4), who worked 3 2/3 innings.

“Our bread and butter has been our ability to pitch and play defense and we didn’t do it in this tournament,” said Chapman Coach Rex Peters.

While Wollscheid was struggling early in the elimination game, it looked as though the Panthers were on their way to another meeting with Cal Lutheran Friday night. That would have been to determine which team would advance to Saturday’s championship game with Southwestern, a team from Georgetown, Texas, that beat fourth-seeded Cal Lutheran, 9-2, Friday.

“[Wollscheid] found his rhythm and started to have a little better command,” said Peters, who is losing only three seniors. “It’s a long ball game, and a lot of things can happen.

“Good teams have the ability to throw up a lot of runs in a hurry. We couldn’t get the big hit and we couldn’t do it yesterday, either. A lot of championship baseball is the ability to pitch and get timely hitting. You need those things to win ball games in the postseason.”