Story courtesy of Texas Lutheran University Sports Information
APPLETON, Wis. -- Texas Lutheran All-American Riley Schaefer laced a single through the left side to score Andrew Whitten for the eventual winning run in 13th as the Bulldogs staved off elimination in the NCAA Division III Baseball World Series with a 3-2 win over Swarthmore (Pa.).
Sunday afternoon at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium, Schaefer collected three hits, including the record-breaker for the school's single-season hits mark in his third at-bat of the game. He went 3-for-7 with a run scored and the game-winning RBI.
TLU (40-10) advances to play Concordia Chicago in a late-night contest Sunday. The Bulldogs must defeat Concordia Chicago twice - Sunday night and then again Monday - to advance to the national championship best 2-of-3 series against the Pool A winner. TLU and Concordia will play for the Pool B title.
Swarthmore's season ended at 38-11 overall.
Drew Waller retired the final three batters of the game after Swarthmore put the tying run at second and brought the winning run to the plate.
Dylan Murrell pitched 5-1/3 innings in relief and improved to 3-0.
Waller notched his fourth save of the year. Reliever Jack Corkery took the loss for Swarthmore. Corkery dropped to 4-2.
TLU started slowly against Swarthmore left-hander Ryan Warm. With TLU trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Schaefer started a two-out rally with a single to left. The hit, Schaefer's 87th of the season, moved the senior outfielder atop the school's record list for single-season hits.
Schaefer moved to second on a Ben Marvin infield single and scored on Thomas Varner's single to left field.
The Bulldogs took the lead for the first time with a rally in the seventh. Varner walked, and Tyler Cauley singled to put the first two batters on base in the frame. After a Keaton Boysen sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third, Whitten put TLU in front with a sacrifice fly to left.
Swarthmore tied the game in the bottom of the eighth on a bloop single to shallow right field off the bat of Conor Elliott.
TLU threatened in the top of the ninth with a one-out single from Varner. The junior was stranded at third.
Bulldogs sophomore Landon Weatherly gave TLU a terrific start on the mound. Weatherly pitched seven innings and allowed five hits and just one run. He struck out six and walked two.
Sophomore left-hander Ryan Warm tossed seven innings in the start for the Garnet. He scattered nine hits, walked three, and struck out three.
Swarthmore closer Jack Corkery came on for the eighth and tossed five shutout innings before giving up the RBI single to Schaefer.