Appleton, WI (5-29-11) – Brad Higgins worked six strong innings and the Keystone College offense used a ninth inning outburst, highlighted by a Roberto Santana two-run single,  to eliminate Salisbury University from the NCAA Division III World Series with a 7-2 victory over the Sea Gulls.

The Giants now move on to play the nation's number one team in Marietta College on Monday at 3:30pm. 

With the victory Keystone moves to 38-11 on the year, while Salisbury ends their year at 34-14.

Higgins, who moved to 8-1 on the year, worked six innings allowing two earned runs on six hits. The senior struck out five and walked just one.

Nathan Young suffered the loss for Salisbury, falling to 5-2 on the season. Young lasted one batter into the eight, allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits, He struck out two, while walking one and hitting one.

The Giants, clinging to a one run lead as they headed to the ninth, broke it open with a four run frame to finally provide some cushion.

Frank Mormino, who was a defensive replacement in the fifth inning, got it started with a one out double high off the wall in left and was followed by an intentional walk to Meletiche. Siano then drew a walk of his own to load the bases. Roberto Santana then singled through the left side to plate Mormino and Meletiche.

After another intentional walk, this time to Henry to once again load the bases, Andy Vega hit a grounder to first that Dustin Herbert threw wide of home allowing Siano to score. Lance Ratchford followed up with a hot shot to third that wasn't played cleanly to bring Santana in as the Giants brought across their seventh run of the game.

Meletiche and Torres each picked up two hits as the Giants collected eight on the afternoon. Meletiche and Santana each also drove in a pair, while Meletiche scored three of Keystone's runs.

Santana had come into his last at bat staring at a 0-4 day until his big hit. “It felt great, I was struggling the first couple of bats,” remarked Santana. 

“Big time players rise up in big time situations,” stated Keystone head coach Jamie Shevchik. “We still came out a little sloppy, waiting for that breakout game. Today was much better, we want to stick around as long as we can,” added Shevchik.

After their lackluster game on Saturday evening the Giants needed some sort of spark to get things going in their win or go home game. 

Meletiche lit the fuse that jump started the Giants by depositing the first pitch of the game deep over the left field wall for a 1-0 lead. Higgins had little trouble with the Sea Gulls in the bottom half of the inning.

“My coach tells me to be aggressive, I had his timing down in his fastball, I went in and waited for the fastball and got it,” said Meletiche of his leadoff blast.

In the top of the second the Giants could do nothing with a Gabe Torres single, but the bottom half of the frame saw the Sea Gulls draw even.

Tyler Bennett led off with a double to left center and came around to score when Fernando Perez could not handle a Chris Conner hot shot to first. Salisbury put runners on the corners with one out but Higgins induced an inning ending double play.

Keystone got that one run back in the third inning as Meletiche kept the hot stroke, this time singling to center with one out. After Andrew Siano sacrificed him to second, he came around to score when second baseman John Schiotis booted a ball off the bat of Roberto Santana. 

Higgins struck out the side in the third to keep Salisbury off the scoreboard, despite the Giants committing two errors in the inning. Perez failed to handle a throw at first after a third strike in the dirt and Bryan Henry was charged with the second error on a throw to second on a stolen base attempt.

Both teams wasted base hits in the fourth, with neither team capitalizing. Torres recorded the one out hit for the Giants. 

Salisbury drew even in the fifth by way of a sacrifice fly.  Schiotis led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Ken O'Neil followed with a single to put runners on the corners, before Brian Green lofted a fly ball to center to plate Schiotis with the tying run.

Keystone went down in order in the fifth and sixth innings, as Young retired eight straight at one point. The Sea Gulls managed a two out hit in the sixth, but some nice glove work by Ratchford and Frank Mormino failed to produce a Salisbury run.

The Giants retook the lead in the seventh, pushing across one run, but the Giants wasted an ideal chance to extend the lead further, loading the bases twice in the inning.

Torres led off the inning by reaching on a hit by pitch and Ratchford followed with a base hit to left. Del Rosso stepped in and put down an attempted sacrifice bunt that turned into a base hit to load the bases. After Mormino popped out with no advance by the runners, Meletiche lofted a fly ball to center to bring home Torres.

Siano was the next Keystone hitter, reaching on a throwing error by the third baseman to reload the bases for the Giants. Santana then drilled a deep fly to center that was tracked down by Bill Root to end the Keystone seventh.

The eight-inning again presented a chance for the Giants to add to their lead as Bryan Henry led off the frame with a walk. Andy Vega executed a two strike bunt to move Henry to second with one out. Henry would move around to third on a Torres ground out, but Ratchford would ground to first to end the threat.


Box Score