'Etta Express open World Series play with a thrilling 2-1 victory over crowd favorite Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Marietta advances to take on Montclair State Saturday at 8:45 p.m.

May 26, 2006
APPLETON, Wisconsin — Fox Cities Stadium has treated Marietta College baseball extremely well in the past and that theme continued Friday (May 26) evening, as the Pioneers made their return to the NCAA Division III World Series and posted a 2-1 victory over Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

The 'Etta Express improved to 9-4 at Fox Cities Stadium. In its only other two appearances, Marietta finished National runners-up in 2001 and 2002.

Marietta (40-11) had the deck stacked against it Friday, as hundreds of UW-Stevens Point fans made the short trip to Appleton to support their team. The 2,467 in attendance was the second largest crowd ever at a Fox Cities Stadium NCAA DIII Championship game and those fans were treated to a fantastic ball game under the lights to close out day one of the World Series.

The 'Etta Express sent junior first team All-American [All-American Release] Mike Eisenberg (Coral Gables, Fla./Bullis) to the hill, while the Pointers (34-17) had sophomore second team All-American Jordan Zimmerman going in the opener.

Both hurlers were dominant throughout as they practically matched each other pitch-by-pitch.

All of the scoring came in the fourth inning. The visiting Pioneers opened the fourth with a double to right center by Ryan Belanger (Coldwater, Mich.), who hustled to second on the shallow fly ball. One out later, senior Justin Steranka (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) drove in Belanger with a RBI single to right field. Steranka then stole second base and advanced to third when the throw from the catcher sailed into center field. Junior Joe Litke (Windsor, Conn.) made the error hurt with a sacrifice fly to left field to score Steranka with what turned out to be the winning-run.

UW-Stevens Point responded with a run of its own in the fourth. The Points also took advantage of an error to get a runner in scoring position and then Adam Evenoff delivered a run-scoring single to left center field to make the score 2-1.

Both pitchers settled down from there. Eisenberg was able to get out of trouble in the sixth by getting a double play. The lanky right-hander also allowed a leadoff single in the ninth, before being replaced by senior Mike DeMark (Jeanette, Pa./Penn-Trafford), who induced a 5-3 double play, when the batter popped up a bunt as the runner on first was attempting to steal second base. The Points followed with another hit, but DeMark struck out the next hitter to secure the victory.

Neither team could get its offense going against the tough pitching. UW-Stevens Points finished with five hits, while Marietta had four. Two of the four Pioneer hits came off the bat of senior third team All-American Jarrod Klausman (Altoona, Pa.).

Eisenberg improved to 12-2 on the year with a solid eight-plus innings of work. He allowed just the unearned run on four hits, walked two and struck out 11. DeMark worked a scoreless ninth to pick up his first save of the season.

"We established the fastball early, and the curve ball got us deep into a lot of counts," Eisenberg said. "Later in the game, we threw more change-ups. Keeping them off balance helped us out, but good defense was the key today."

Zimmerman took the loss to fall to 5-5 on the year. He allowed just two runs (one earned) on four hits, walked one and also struck out 11 in the complete game.

"We're real excited about where we are and pleased to have the opportunity to play in the winner's bracket again tomorrow night," said Marietta coach Brian Brewer, who improved to 105-32-1 in his three seasons with the Pioneers.

The 'Etta Express victory sets up a rematch with Montclair State (N.J.) under the lights on Saturday. The two teams met on the first day of the season in Salisbury, Maryland with the Red Hawks pulling out the 6-5 victory in 10 innings. First pitch is slated for 8:45 p.m.

In other action Friday, Chapman (Calif.) defeated Eastern Connecticut State 6-3, Wheaton (Mass.) took down North Carolina Wesleyan 2-0 and Montclair State cruised past Aurora (Ill.) 7-2.

All of the Pioneers' action game be heard live on WMOA-AM 1490 and mariettaonline.com. Live statistics are also available on the World Series site.