MARIETTA, Ohio - The Adrian College baseball team needed just two more outs to win their first game of the 2011 Mideast Regional. Case Western Reserve would not let them have it as pinch-hitter Peter Zak stepped up with a grand slam in the top of the ninth off Lucas Willitzer to lead the Spartans to an improbable 5-4 win over the Bulldogs.
Adrian (31-10) cruised through the first seven innings as starter Ryan Domschot threw his best outing to date in his regional career before giving up a two-out RBI single to Chad Mullins in the eighth. At the time, Adrian led 3-1 because they scored three runs in the bottom of the third. In the home half of the third, Kyle Strawn had an RBI single and Brian Bilius followed with a one-out, two-run single to stake AC to a 3-0 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, Joe Dubina got the run right back for the Bulldogs with a two-out RBI double down the left field line which made it 4-1. Domschot came out to start the ninth and walked the first hitter on four pitches to push his game total to 95. Willitzer was summoned out of the bullpen and was attempting to earn his second save of the season. Instead, he took his second loss of the year as the Spartans began to rally in the ninth.
Bobby Marko collected his third hit of the game with a single through the right side to put runners on first and second with no outs. Cory Pecoraro struck out swinging for the first out and then Steve Bills drew a walk after being down 1-2 in the count to load the bases. Then the dramatics started as Zak filled in for Jimmy Abed in the nine-spot and took a 1-0 pitch over the fence in left center to give Case Western a 5-4 lead.
The Bulldogs then went into the bottom of the ninth and went down in order to give the Spartans their first tournament win. Jamie Hora improved to 8-3 this season and scattered 13 hits with a walk and six strikeouts. He threw 138 pitches and also allowed four earned runs. Andrew DeLuca, Bilius, Michael Herzog and Dubina each had two hits for Adrian.
The Bulldogs will now have a long road towards a title as they will now play tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM against the loser of Heidelberg and Penn State-Altoona which is set to start at 6:00 PM.
