Chapman back in regional final with win over Pomona-Pitzer
McMINNVILLE, Ore. - The long and sometimes turbulent 40-game regular season for the 2009 Chapman University baseball team - one in which the Panthers wondered if they would even make the playoffs - seems like a distant memory now.
The No. 5-seeded Panthers eliminated top-seeded Pomona-Pitzer Colleges with a 5-2 victory at Roy Helser Field on Saturday night and are now just one win away from their fifth straight NCAA Division III West Region crown. Chapman (29-14) will face George Fox University (Ore.) in the championship game on Sunday at noon and must be defeated twice to be kept from the title.
Chapman never trailed in the game, jumping out to a 3-0 lead with a pair of runs in the third and another in the fourth inning. In the third, freshman DH Ben Owens tripled to leadoff the inning and came around to score on a passed ball to put the Panthers on the board first. With one out in the fourth, junior OF Ryan Prechtl hit a solo home run to left field to make it 3-0 Chapman.
The Sagehens got a run in the top of the fifth, but the Panthers responded with two more in the bottom of the inning. Junior C Joe Lehman's two-out, two-run single gave Chapman a 5-1 cushion that it would not relinquish.
The Panthers got another strong pitching performance from senior RHP Matt Irsfeld, who also tossed four relief innings on Thursday and picked up the victory. Irsfeld was nails in this one, scattering eight hits and striking out five in 7 2/3 innings to earn his second win of the tournament.
The senior's biggest moment on the mound came when Pomona-Pitzer (37-7) loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh. With the tying run at the plate, Irsfeld got Sagehens' OF Zach Mandelblatt to flyout to shallow right field and DH Nick Fredrick to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the jam.
Sophomore RHP John Semel got the final four outs for his eighth save of the year and first of this postseason. Semel induced a ground ball double play with one out in the ninth to end the game.
Chapman once again had double-digits in hits with 10. Owens went 3-for-5 with a triple and senior IF Tristan Phillips was 3-for-4 with a double and run scored and raised his team-high batting average to .443.
The Panthers avenged a three-game sweep at the hands of Pomona-Pitzer during the regular season, which came in the midst of a 1-6 skid in April. Since that three-game series, Chapman is 8-1 including a 3-0 mark in the postseason.
With the win, Chapman has now won 11 consecutive West Region playoff games, dating back to 2007.
Sunday's opponent, George Fox (34-10), is another familiar playoff foe for the Panthers as the two programs have met in the regional tournament in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. Chapman is 4-2 against the Bruins in postseason play, including defeating George Fox twice in one day in 2003 to win the regional title - six years ago to the day of this year's championship game.
Box score: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/bsb/2008-09/stats/pp-cu2.htm