WEST LAWN, Pa. – The Mercyhurst baseball team mustered its third-straight comeback win to clinch its second NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Championship in program history, its first regional title since 2015.
The Lakers (36-13) defeated Seton Hill 4-2 Monday afternoon for its fourth-straight win in the regional tournament, powered by the efforts of pitchers Tyler Garbee and Chris Vallimont as well as converting on opportunistic scoring chances.
Garbee started his second game of the tournament for Mercyhurst and faced off with Seton Hill's Patrick Monteverde. Both were stellar through six innings, as no base runners for either team reached further than second base.
In the top of the seventh, Seton Hill (34-22) broke the scoreless tie when Colton Carney scored on an errant throw in the infield. Garbee dug in to strand a Griffin on third base and leave the deficit at one.
Garbee left the game after seven innings with just the one unearned run allowed. He held Seton Hill to just five hits and walked two while striking out six on 117 pitches.
Mercyhurst wasted no time coming back as they ended up scoring four runs in the bottom half. With two outs and runners on first and second, Seton Hill elected to pull Monteverde and went to the bullpen.
After reliever Josh Keefe walked Dominic Cecere to load the bases, Daniel Elliott scored the tying run on a passed ball. Jack Elliott also walked to re-load the bases, and Michael Montalbano mimicked Dan Elliott when he scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball.
Jimmy Standohar grounded to third the following at-bat, but the throw sailed high from the bag and allowed both Cecere and
Jack Elliott to round their way home for two more runs. Mercyhurst ended up scoring all four of its runs in the frame without recording a base hit.
The Griffins tacked on a run on Tom McCarthy's fielders-choice to make the score 4-2 with no one out and runners on first and second. Vallimont came in from the bullpen for the second time against the Griffins in the tournament and after allowing the base runners to advance on a wild pitch, he struck out two and got the third out via a pop-up to get the Lakers out of the jam.
Vallimont went back to the mound in the ninth inning for his first career save. After striking out two more Griffins, he forced another pop up for the games' final out.
Garbee finished with sixth win of the season (6-0) while Monteverde fell to 4-3.
Mercyhurst now advances to the 2018 Division II College World Series hosted by the University of Mount Olive at Cary, N.C.'s USA Baseball National Training Complex. The double-elimination tournament is set to begin Saturday, May 26 and conclude Saturday, June 2.
