Loss Leaves Chapman on Brink of Elimination

Chapman fell into the losers’ bracket of the NCAA Division III World Series after a 5-1 loss to defending champion Montclair State Friday at Fox Cities Stadium.

The Panthers will play Salisbury State today at 8 a.m. (PDT), with the loser being eliminated from the eight-team tournament.

“You have to take advantage of the opportunities when you get them,” Chapman Coach Rex Peters said. “We had a few opportunities, but we just couldn’t get a big hit.”

One such opportunity came in the bottom of the eighth, with the Panthers trailing, 3-0.

After failing to advance a runner past second in the first seven innings, Chapman got a leadoff single by Kyle Schoonover, and Alex Taylor followed with a double to right field to put runners on second and third. Andy Karp drove in Schoonover with a groundout to first base, but Jude Chavez and Mike Caira, batting third and fourth in the order, struck out looking, stranding Taylor at third.

Montclair State scored twice in the ninth for its final margin of victory.

“I thought Jude would give us a little bit better at-bat in that situation,” Peters said. “I thought that was a big run to get us right back in the game. Unfortunately, we couldn’t put it across.”

Chapman fell behind, 1-0, in the top of the third on a couple of weakly-hit balls. Adam Cerminaro opened the inning with a bloop single to right that fell just out of reach of first baseman Karp. With two outs and Cerminaro on third, Craig Conway topped a grounder down the third-base line that traveled about 35 feet. He beat the throw to first and the run scored.

In the sixth inning, Montclair State got another break to take a 2-0 lead. With one out and runners on first and second, third baseman Brian Menkin had a possible double-play grounder take a bad hop and go off his glove, and a run scored on the error.

The Red Hawks scored once more in the seventh.

Left-hander Ryan Costello pitched an eight-hitter for Montclair State.

“He just challenged us to hit his best pitch, and we didn’t really do that good of a job with it,” said Schoonover, who had three hits.

For the second consecutive year at the Division III World Series, Chapman will have to battle through the losers’ bracket. Last year, the Panthers rebounded to win two games after losing their opener, but were eliminated with a loss on the second-to-last day of the tournament.

“There’s going to be four teams that drop in the losers’ bracket after today,” Peters said. “Hopefully, you can gain a little bit of confidence along the way, make a little run and get hot somewhere along the line. I don’t think you need to panic.”

The Panthers will send their best pitcher, Andrew Tisdale (11-0, 1.85 earned-run average), to the mound today. Mike Carey got the start Friday. He gave up three earned runs in seven innings and took the loss.

Peters said he wanted to give Tisdale an extra day of rest after he started twice, including the deciding game, in last week’s West Regional in Orange.

“I think if you’re in the losers’ bracket and there’s a guy you want to be able to go to, it’s a good situation to be in,” Peters said. “He’s the guy you want on the mound. Obviously, we’d rather be in the winner’s bracket with him on the mound, but it didn’t work out like that.”

Tisdale will face Salisbury State’s Chad Swiderski (7-3, 2.79).

On a day the Panthers didn’t produce much offense, Schoonover couldn’t be blamed. Chapman’s leadoff hitter went three for four and scored a run. The rest of the lineup combined for only five hits.

“I knew [Costello] was going to come right after me,” said Schoonover, a 5-foot-8 center fielder. “Me being the little guy in there, I knew he wasn’t going to be afraid of me hitting the ball out of the park.”