CARY, N.C. –The two-seeded Columbus State attacked early on their way to a 8-1 victory over No. 7 seed Mercyhurst University on Sunday in the fourth game of the 2018 Division II Baseball Championship.
The championship is being held at the USA Baseball National Training Complex, and is being co-hosted by the Town of Cary and the University of Mount Olive.
From there, the Cougars rode the arm of Kolton Ingram to the win, which advances Columbus State into a Tuesday night winner’s bracket game.
Mercyhurst drops into the loser’s bracket, and will play on Tuesday afternoon against Texas A&M Kingsville.
Columbus State struck first in the bottom of the first as Grant Berry singled into right. Following Berry stealing second and a walk to Garrett Kirkwood, Chase Brown, with two away singled up the middle clearing the bases as the Cougars took a 2-0 lead.
The Cougars pushed home three more runs in the fourth on two RBI base hits and moved out to a 5-0 lead.
Another two runs came home for CSU in the sixth as the lead moved up to seven.
Both teams scored in the ninth but the comeback for Mercyhurst fell short as the Lakers were only able to score one run in the bottom of the ninth and the Cougars took the 8-1 final.
Quotes
Columbus State University
Head coach Greg Appleton
“Offensively we did a great job, because they had a really good pitcher on the mound. The old saying is ‘you have to get a good guy early.’ We went out there and got a couple of runs, and I think that took a little of the heat off of us.”
“Kolton pitched such a good game. Once we got two runs, we felt like that might hold up. He did an outstanding job.”
“Their pitcher was very good, just as advertised.”
“I feel like we’re on a good roll. But they know this is a new tournament. We started over today. There is no carry-over. I specifically told them that. But I think it is big to come out here and win the first game, get your focus going and build confidence, for sure.”
Starting pitcher Kolton Ingram
“I face that every time I go out to pitch. There’s always someone taller than me. I don’t let it get in my head. I just go out there with a game plan and just try to execute my pitches. People say there’s a difference between pitchers and throwers. I try to go out there and pitch.”
“I just tried to keep the crowd out of my head, keep the radar gun out of my head. I’ve seen a lot of guys looking back at the radar gun, trying to see how hard they’re throwing. I tried to keep my focus and minimize the errors in pitches that I make.”
Shortstop Grant Berry
“The last couple of weeks, when we’ve scored first, we’ve ended up winning most of those games. We knew if we scored first we had a pretty good shot. I knew that (their pitcher) would try to pop the radar, get the game going, and it would be a good time to swing at it. It started going well from there.”
Mercyhurst University
Head coach Joe Spano
“It certainly wasn’t our best effort today. I think the guys were still feeling a little hangover from the regional. But more than that, I think you have to give all the credit to Columbus State. They were just tremendous today. Their pitcher, Ingram, was just fantastic. They got some timely pitching early.”
“I thought Chris pitched outstanding. The way our offense is structured, we feed off of him. We got behind a little bit, and it was tough getting back the way Columbus State played.”
“This isn’t one of our strongest offensive teams, but we’re scrappy. I’m proud of the way they play. They’re usually more opportunistic. But I think you just have to give credit to their starting pitcher. Also, he deserves credit for the way he fielded his position, bunts we laid down that might have been hits in the regional and sparked a big inning. Those are the things we do, and they just took that away from us.”
Starting pitcher Chris Vallimont
“The moral of the story today is I have to be better with two outs and execute pitches. I need to have a good time and never let off the gas.”
“They had an approach that was very successful. They were all over the fastball, which I normally can get away with more times than not. But they were all over it today.”