2006 NCAA Division III Baseball New York Regional
2006 Tournament Statistics
Summary Stats
Team Stats
Individual Stats
Centenary
Cortland State
Eastern Conn State
Endicott
Ithaca
Rensselaer
St Lawrence
Eastern Connecticut Wins NY Regional With 10-7 Win Over Cortland
Auburn, N.Y. -- The Eastern Connecticut Warriors fought through the losers' bracket to claim the eighth and final berth in the Division III World Series, beating Cortland 10-7. The Warriors, 35-18 on the season, will face Chapman in the opening round Friday. Cortland, the 2005 national runner-up, finishes 39-9.
Freshman Shawn Gilblair (Windham/Windham, Conn.), the tournament MVP, hit a second-inning grand slam to break the game open and earned the win with 3.2 innings of three-hit relief. He struck out eight while throwing 71 pitches -- less than two days after a 100-pitch complete-game effort that eliminated St. Lawrence on Friday. Gilblair's grand slam capped a five-run Warrior second.
Garafalo doubled in a run in the first and scored on a wild pitch as Eastern Connecticut jumped out to a 2-1 lead. The Warriors knocked out Cortland junior Jimmy Dougher (Liverpool/Liverpool), who entered the game 9-0 including a complete-game shutout over Eastern Connecticut earlier in the regional.
Eastern Connecticut pushed across a two-out run on an RBI single by junior outfielder Randy Re (Danbury/Danbury, Conn.) that put runners on second and third. Following an intentional walk to senior second baseman Marc Garafolo (South Kingstown/South Kingstown, R.I.), Cortland brought in senior Nick McPartland (Beacon/Beacon) to face Gilblair, who homered on a 1-2 count to give Eastern Connecticut a 7-1 lead.
Cortland chipped away at the lead, pulling to within 10-5 in the fifth. Gilblair, who started the game as the Warriors' designated hitter, came into that inning with runners on first and second and one out. After an infield error scored a run, Gilblair struck out consecutive hitters to end the threat. He worked out of trouble in the sixth despite yielding two runs.
Cortland put two runners on; junior shortstop Mike Rosenberry (Clarence/Clarence) beat out an infield hit and senior center fielder Jimmy Basnight (St. Dominic/East Norwich) doubled down the left field lin. A two-run single by senior outfielder Andy Mead (C.W. Baker/Baldwinsville) brought Cortland to within 10-7, but two more Gilblair strikeouts ended the inning.
Cortland's last gasp came in the eighth as the Red Dragons loaded the bases without a hit; junior reliever Justin Davis (Griswold/Lisbon, Conn.) came in with two outs and the tying runs on and induced an inning-ending groundout. Davis earned his second save in as many days against Cortland.
Junior catcher Matt Cooney (Arlington/Arlington, Mass.) and senior third baseman Zach Mehrbach (Hanover/Lyme, N.H.) each had three hits for the Warriors. Sophomore shortstop Thomas (Xavier/East Haddam, Conn.) hit a two-run double in the fourth. Cooney finished with a tournament-best 14 hits and a .538 batting average. Re's 10 RBI's were a tournament-high.
Mead had three hits for Cortland. Junior catcher Shawn Ensel (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa), Basnight and Rosenberry each added two hits.
2006 New York Regional All-Tournament Team
MVP - Shawn Gilblair, Eastern Conn State
Catcher - Matt Cooney, Eastern Conn State; Shawn Ensel, Cortland State;Rob Raux, Ithaca; First Base - Jeff DiGeronimo, St. Lawrence; Patrick Cassady, Centenary; Second Base - Marc Garafalo, Eastern Conn State: Third Base - ; Shortstop - ; Outfield - Andy Mead, Cortland State; Randy Re, Eastern Conn State; Michael Passante, Rensselaer; Designated Hitter - Shawn Gilblair, Eastern Conn State; Pitcher - Jimmy Jagodzinski, Eastern Conn State.
2006 Results
Eastern Conn State 4, St Lawrence 3
Cortland State 9, Eastern Conn State 0
Eastern Conn State 16, Centenary 3
Eastern Conn State 4, St Lawrence 1
Eastern Conn State 14, Ithaca 3