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Shenandoah University pitcher Jacob Faivre threw a complete-game five-hitter against St. Joseph's (N.Y.) in the opening game of the NCAA Division III Baseball Regional hosted by SU at Bridgeforth Field. Faivre walked none and struck out eight batters in a 10-3 win. The Hornets will play Catholic at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in their second game of the double-elimination tournament.
Shenandoah University shortstop Frankie Ritter lays down a bunt for a single in the six-run third inning against St. Joseph’s University in the NCAA Division III Baseball Regional on Friday at Bridgeforth Field. Ritter went 2 for 4 with two runs and a home run in SU’s 10-3 win.
Shenandoah University coach Kevin Anderson sends Pearce Butcher home during the Hornets' 10-3 win over St. Joseph's in the opening game of the NCAA Division 3 Baseball Regional on Friday at Bridgeforth Field. Bucher went 3 for 4 with two doubles and two runs and extended his hitting streak to 32 games.
Shenandoah University pitcher Jacob Faivre threw a complete-game five-hitter against St. Joseph's (N.Y.) in the opening game of the NCAA Division III Baseball Regional hosted by SU at Bridgeforth Field. Faivre walked none and struck out eight batters in a 10-3 win. The Hornets will play Catholic at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in their second game of the double-elimination tournament.
Shenandoah University shortstop Frankie Ritter lays down a bunt for a single in the six-run third inning against St. Joseph’s University in the NCAA Division III Baseball Regional on Friday at Bridgeforth Field. Ritter went 2 for 4 with two runs and a home run in SU’s 10-3 win.
Shenandoah University coach Kevin Anderson sends Pearce Butcher home during the Hornets' 10-3 win over St. Joseph's in the opening game of the NCAA Division 3 Baseball Regional on Friday at Bridgeforth Field. Bucher went 3 for 4 with two doubles and two runs and extended his hitting streak to 32 games.
WINCHESTER — After Brian Forbes’ impressive opposite-field line-drive home run to right field three batters into the game, Shenandoah University fans had to wonder if the nation’s No. 2 hitting team in St. Joseph’s University-Long Island (N.Y.) was going to force the Hornets to win a slugging contest.
Eight innings later, SU did have 10 runs on the scoreboard, with eight different players getting hits and six players recording at least one RBI. But the wings of the Golden Eagles’ prolific offense had been clipped significantly by the right arm of junior Jacob Faivre.
Faivre retired 24 of the next 27 batters after Forbes’ home run. One out away from putting up his eighth straight goose egg on the scoreboard, Faivre gave up a two-run home run to Ryan Decoursey. But he retired the next batter for his first complete game of the year as the No. 14 Hornets won 10-3 in the opening game of the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament Regional hosted by SU before a crowd of 562 at Bridgeforth Field.
SU (35-10-1) will next take on Catholic (30-12), a 7-1 winner over Stevens Tech on Friday, at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday in the double-elimination tournament.
St. Joe’s (23-13) came in batting .371 as team and averaging nine runs per game, but it only managed two hits from the second through eighth innings. Faivre set the Eagles down in order in six of those seven innings. Faivre — who retired 15 batters in a row at one point — ended the game with a five-hitter and no walks allowed, while recording eight strikeouts.
The Eagles have only been held to one run just once all year, and Faivre was one out away from doing that in his 115-pitch effort.
“Awesome. It feels awesome,” said Faivre (9-1) when asked about holding St. Joe’s to five hits. “Even though the runs came off big flies, that’s all right. Pulling out a win, that’s all that matters, and I felt awesome out there.”
SU took the lead and gave Faivre all the run support he needed with a six-run third inning in which 11 batters came to the plate. The Hornets had six hits, two walks, two sacrifice flies and took advantage of one error in the frame, with Henry Delavergne’s RBI single that made it 5-1 chasing St. Joe’s ace Kevin Czeczotka (5-3, six runs, five earned, seven hits, three walks and no strikeouts in 2.2 innings) from the game.
Czeczotka said part of the reason he struggled in the third is that he felt the umpire had a tight strike zone and he didn’t get some calls he was hoping for on the outside against SU’s all-righty lineup.
Faivre managed the strike zone just fine. Only a few batters managed to work a three-ball count against him.
Faivre said he was excited to face a lineup like St. Joe’s. SU coach Kevin Anderson pointed out that the Eagles were without designated hitter and No. 5 hitter John Lynch (.431, 33 RBIs) because of the flu, but they still boasted six players hitting .370 and seven players with 20 or more RBIs.
Faivre said a big key was his curveball location. After the game started, he began each warmup between innings with four curveballs.
“I thought I got better as the game went on,” Faivre said. “At the beginning, my curveball wasn’t located as well. I think I got better with that each inning.”
From the second through the eighth, the only trouble that Faivre encountered came in the fourth, right after SU’s six-run third. Back-to-back singles by Forbes and Decoursey put runners on first and second with one out and had St. Joe’s threatening to get back in the game. But Faivre got several swings and misses on fastballs up in the zone all day, and he got two straight strikeouts with high fastballs to end the rally.
“When our team scores, we like to try and go out there and put up a goose egg on the scoreboard,” Faivre said. “That’s kind of a momentum-killer for the other team. I think it’s really important when we have a big inning to go out there and absolutely shut them down. So the fact that I was able to work out of that inning I think was huge for the team.”
After that, Faivre essentially shut down the Golden Eagles completely. Anderson gave a lot of credit to catcher Matt Moon (1 for 4 with a run and RBI) for giving good targets and using good non-verbal communication, and he liked Faivre’s ability to focus and make adjustments.
“He missed some barrels today,” Anderson said. “Jacob Faivre gave us a great start.”
Anderson’s son Kooper (2 for 3, run, two stolen bases) had a great at-bat to get SU’s game-changing inning started.
The Hornets hit several balls hard off Czeczotka in the first two innings, but a double play in each inning kept the Eagles ahead 1-0.
Anderson led off the third with a nine-pitch at-bat in which he fouled off three two-strike pitches to stay alive before finally drawing a walk.
“I was trying not to get beat away, and they came in, they came in, they came in, and I fouled [the pitches] off,” Kooper Anderson said. “Then he floated a changeup that started out off the plate, and I saw it well [and took it].”
Ryan Clawson (3 for 4, 3 RBIs, two-run double in the fourth to make it 8-1) said that at-bat pumped up the Hornets. SU then did damage with its bats.
Moon grounded a single up the middle, Frankie Ritter (2 for 4 with two runs and a solo home run in the eighth), laid a perfect bunt down the third-base line for a single that loaded the bases, and Gavin Horning (3 for 4 with two runs) lined a ground single back through the box to tie the score at 1-1.
Kyle Lisa hit a sacrifice fly to right to make it 2-1, Pearce Bucher (3 for 4, two doubles, 32-game hitting streak) walked to load the bases, and Clawson hit a sacrifice fly to center to make it 3-1.
The Hornets then had an RBI single to right from Haden Madagan (1-4, run, 2 RBIs) and a ground shot up the middle by Delavergne to make it 5-1 and chase Czeczotka. Anderson then singled to left, with the left fielder bobbling the ball and allowing Madagan to score to make it 6-1.
As evidenced by all the balls hit to center and right, the right-handed Hornets did an excellent job of hitting the ball in the direction it was pitched.
“We knew we were seeing a lefty with a fastball, curveball, slider and changeup, and the approach was using the middle of the field and the gaps,” Clawson said. “Just trying to find a pitch over the middle of the plate. Instead of just trying to yank a fly ball to left, we just tried to stay through the ball, and I think it worked out for us well.”
The inning went a long way toward making a memorable day even more special. This is SU’s 11th NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009, but the Hornets had never hosted a regional tournament until this year. It wouldn’t have been possible if the Hornets hadn’t acquired managing rights for Bridgeforth Field and installed an artificial turf in-fill system (it was previously grass) and added things like new dugouts and fencing.
It meant a lot for Kooper Anderson, a junior who grew up around Bridgeforth with his father, to be a part of the historic moment.
“It’s really awesome,” Kooper said. “I dreamed of this as a kid. I traveled with the team and went to all the regionals, and one day I knew I was going to be a player. It’s unreal hosting in Winchester. It’s really the best.”
His father got emotional talking about Kooper being a part of this situation — he held up his hand a few feet off the ground when talking about Kooper being a team bat boy. This was after the team’s 19th-year head coach got emotional talking about hosting the regional in general.
“I can’t believe it,” Anderson said, his voice cracking. “To see where this program has gone. To see the outpour of all hands on deck by the university, from the president, to the athletic administration, the people volunteering, who’d ever thought this would happen? I could not be more thankful or grateful.”
The winner of the SU-Catholic game will advance to Sunday’s championship. The loser of that contest will take on the winner of the St. Joe’s-Stevens Tech game at 6 p.m. on Saturday for the right to be the other championship game participant.
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