#5 seeded Swarthmore College got a 4 for 4 performance from Charles Levitt Sunday night, to oust #3 Southern Maine 9-3 in the championship round of the Divsion III baseball regionals at Falcon Park in Auburn, New York.
USM (30-15) had stayed alive earlier on Sunday by defeating the host school SUNY Cortland 12-10 in 10 innings in an elimination game. USM trailed 8-3 and 10-8 in that contest, before scoring two in the ninth to tie it again and then Zach Quintal put the Huskies in front to stay with a two run, two out triple in the extra frame. On Sunday, Levitt had two triples, an RBI, and two runs scored to help Swarthmore advance to the Division III World Series in Appleton, Wisconsin for first time in school history. The will face the eighth ranked team in Division III in Concordia Chicago (38-13) at 4:30 pm Friday in a first round game.
The Garnet (37-9) had trailed 3-2 in the fifth, but would get three runs to take the lead for good. USM starter Dalton Rice hit AJ Liu with a pitch to open the inning, and Liu would score on Levitts second triple of the night to make it 3-3. Later in the inning with the bases loaded, Rice walked consecutive batters to give Swarthmore a 5-3 lead. Conor Elliot hit an RBI groundout in the sixth to make it 6-3, and the Garnet tacked on three more in the eighth. Swarthmore finished 4-0 in regional, while USM was 3-2. The Huskies also had wins over Amherst and Salisbury in the tournament, while both losses came to the regional champion Garnet.
USM left the bases loaded in both the seventh and eighth innings, and stranded 15 runners in the loss. Andrew Olszak had three singles for the Huskies, and Zach Quintal reached base four times including a single and scored two runs. Anthony Degifico and Kyle Heath had two hits each in the loss, and Olszak and Quintal made the all-tourney team.
Rice (3-4) took the loss on the hill for USM, allowing four runs (three earned), and four hits in a 4.0 inning effort. Charles Groppe (6-0) allowed three runs and seven hits in 7.0 innings pitched to earn the win for the Garnet. Jack Cockery earned a two inning save, his eighth save of year, and allowed three hits.
