Chapman Goes Out Quietly at the NCAAs

Chapman’s coaches and players won’t need the off-season to figure out what went wrong at the NCAA Division III World Series this year.

The answer isn’t hard to find.

“When you only score one run in 18 innings, you’re not going to win too many ballgames,” Chapman Coach Rex Peters said.

Chapman went 0-2 in the baseball championship series, and the Panthers managed only two hits Saturday in a 2-0 loss to Salisbury State (Md.) that eliminated them from the tournament. They lost their first game, 5-1, against Montclair State on Friday at Fox Cities Stadium.

“When we came, we had one objective, and that was to stay and play long,” senior outfielder Mike Caira said. “Going two and out is a disappointment. There’s nothing more you can say.”

Unlike Friday’s opener, when they got eight hits and had a few opportunities to score, the Panthers never seriously threatened against Salisbury State starting pitcher Chad Swiderski.

Alex Taylor got Chapman’s first hit on a single with one out in the first inning and advanced on a groundout, but that was the only time a Panther baserunner reached second. Chapman got only one more baserunner, when Kyle Schoonover singled in the sixth inning.

In the tournament, Schoonover, Chapman’s leadoff hitter, went four for eight and Taylor, the No. 2 hitter, went two for eight. The rest of the lineup went four for 46, an average of .087. For a team that hit .327 and averaged eight runs per game coming into the World Series, it was an unexpected offensive shortfall.

“Coming into the tournament, we liked where we stood,” said Caira, a .363 hitter during the regular season who went hitless in seven at-bats in the series. “We just never got anything going. Never hit the ball, never came up clutch. It was one of those things. We just didn’t perform.”

Indicative of the Panthers’ lack of offensive production in this tournament was the fact that their leadoff hitter reached base only three times in 18 innings. One of those instances was in the eighth inning Friday, when Schoonover reached on a single and ended up scoring Chapman’s only run in the two games.

“Our offense is a motion type of offense,” Peters said, “where we have to get runners on base and put runners in motion with bunts and hits to create some scoring opportunities, because we don’t have a lot of power.

“When the leadoff hitter only gets on [three times] in 18 innings, that limits your opportunities to create some offense.”

Salisbury State took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning when, with two outs and nobody on, Kevin Davis hit a long home run just inside the left-field foul pole.

Salisbury State got some breathing room in the sixth. The first two runners reached on an infield hit and a walk. On an ensuing bunt, pitcher Andrew Tisdale threw wildly trying to get the force at third base and a run scored.

Tisdale didn’t pitch poorly for Chapman, but he had no room for error. He gave up six hits and struck out five in six innings.

“I didn’t throw as well as I would have liked to,” Tisdale said. “My arm was a little fatigued. I made a bad pitch, made a bad throw, and those are their two runs right there.”

Chapman held back Tisdale, its ace with an 11-0 record and 1.85 earned-run average, for one day to give him some extra rest.

Peters said Tisdale has been battling shoulder problems, but thought he pitched well on Saturday.

“He battled real good with probably his ‘B’ stuff, and he did what he was supposed to do, give us a chance to win,” Peters said. “You lose a 2-0 game as a pitcher, you’ve done your job.”

The Panthers didn’t get a lot of breaks in the tournament. On Friday, Brian Menkin hit a hard grounder that ricocheted off the leg of Montclair State pitcher Ryan Costello and went straight to the first baseman.

In the fifth inning Saturday, Brian Sanders hit a hard grounder that hit Swiderski just above the knee, but the pitcher was able to recover and throw Sanders out.