Red Men Eliminate Hornets

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. - Shenandoah University's magical run at the 2009 NCAA Baseball Championships ended Sunday afternoon with 9-8, 11-inning loss to Carthage (Wis.)

Carthage (38-8) earned the extra-inning victory when catcher Mike Hughes hit a two-out, solo home run to left-center in the top of the ninth.

Hughes' dinger, his 10^th of the season, allowed the Red Men to salvage the win. Shenandoah (38-10) had rallied from a 6-1 deficit to tie the contest in the eighth and nearly pull off the comeback victory.

Hughes hit the shot off of senior Gage Levac (4-4), who was outstanding in 5.1 innings of relief. Lavac allowed one run on three hits in relief of classmate Matthew Davis.

On their way to a South Region title and the team's first-ever appearance in the NCAA Championships, the Hornets set new school records for wins, winning streak and in 16 different hitting and pitching team categories.

After Carthage jumped on the board with two runs in the top of the first, SU answered with one in the bottom.

Sophomore Kevin Brashears led off by drawing a five-pitch walk, moved to second on a groundout and then scored on Greg Van Sickler's two-out double down the left-field line.

Unfortunately for the Hornets faithful, the Red Men effectively ended the contest by scoring four unearned runs in the third off of Davis.

Davis, making his first start of the season, was victimized by two fielding errors that extended the inning before giving up a three-run home run to Carthage first baseman John Lequia that made it 6-1 in favor of the tournament's "home" team.

Carthage College is located in Kenosha, a distance of 140 miles from Grand Chute.

Red Men starter Eric Rohe settled down after allowing that first inning run to retire eight of the next nine SU hitters; unfortunately for Rohe, the wheels completely came off in the bottom of the fifth.

Carthage made a near-record four errors in the frame that led to four unearned runs for the Hornets - Brashears and Van Sickler had RBI singles to score Adam Delauter and Jon Holcomb, who reached on throwing and fielding errors, respectively.

The Red Men chased Davis with two runs in the sixth, but Shenandoah had an answer in the seventh.

Coach Kevin Anderson's club ended Rohe's day by getting the first two hitters on via a walk and a single through the left side; Van Sickler drove in the first run with a single up the middle before a Scott Van Dusseldorp groundout plated Scott Lambert.

Lambert finally brought his club all the way back in the eighth by lacing an RBI single to right center to score Delauter from second. Delauter had led off the SU eighth with a base on balls.

Van Sickler finished his All-America season with four hits in six at-bats and drove in three runs. He was 8 for 12 at the plate in the three games.