Evan Scully may never throw another pitch in an Endicott College baseball uniform. But the 93 he threw Monday night at the NCAA Division 3 College World Series in Eastlake, Ohio were historic.
The 6-foot-3 right-hander was brilliant in pitching 8-plus innings against Adrian (Mich.) College, allowing just four hits without a walk and striking out seven while retiring 17 hitters in a row at one point. His dominant outing allowed the Gulls to prevail, 4-2, at Classic Auto Lake Park, thus advancing to the best-of-3 championship final for the first time in school history.
After giving up a hit to lead off the ninth, Scully’s excellent evening was over. Staff ace Brady Stuart — who had pitched Friday in a CWS victory over Salisbury — came out of the pen for only his third relief appearance of the season, Although Adrian’s Christian Oliver belted a two-run homer to left off him with two out, Stuart calmly closed out the contest by inducing a groundout to Hamm, sending the Blue-and-Green to the championship final.
Now 43-12 on the season, Endicott — in the College World Series for the fourth straight season — will meet the nation’s top rated team, Dennison (49-2) of Ohio, starting Wednesday at noon. Game 2 will take place Thursday at 11 a.m., with an ‘if necessary’ contest to be played 45 minutes afterwards.
Brenden Walsh, a junior right fielder, got the scoring started early for Endicott, knocking a two-out single through the left side of the Adrian defense to plate captain T.J. Liponis for a 1-0 lead. It was his team-leading 67th RBI of the season.
Scully allowed a two-out single to Gabe Jones in the bottom of the frame before setting down the next 17 Adrian hitters in a brilliant performance.
Looking to add to their lead, the Gulls saw John Fusco deliver in the top of the fifth. Swinging from the left side of the plate, the sophomore left fielder laced a two-run single up the middle to plate both Kyle Grabowski (walk) and Cade Bernardo (single), expanding the lead to 3-0.
Senior second baseman A.J. Hamm gave the Gulls some breathing room in the seventh inning. He punched a single through a drawn-in infield to score John Fusco, who had doubled and took third on a wild pitch.
Endicott finished with nine hits against four Adrian hurlers, with Liponis, Bernardo and Fusco each collecting two. Leadoff hitter Adam Regan and Walsh both added a hit and walked twice.
The Gulls had dropped a 10-9 decision to Adrian earlier in the day, forcing a one-game, winner-take-all contest to determine which team would come out of their four-team bracket to meet Dennison in the final.