Courtesy Trinity Sports Information

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. - Junior RHP Matthew Scherbring (Manchester, Iowa) pitched a complete game without allowing an earned run and despite giving up 10 hits to lead the Wartburg College Knights to a 4-1 win over the Trinity College Bantams in A second round elimination game in the NCAA Division III National Baseball Championship Tournament this afternoon at Fox Cities Stadium.

Trinity, ranked No. 1 in New England and No. 5 in the nation, ends its season with a best-ever 35-9 record, while the Knights improve to 36-10 and will play a loser’s bracket game tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. against the loser of tonight’s contest between Rowan and Wooster.

Each team scored a run in the first inning, but Scherbring held the Bantams scoreless the rest of the way while his team took advantage of two Bantam fielding miscues in the third frame to take a 3-1 lead and added an insurance run in the seventh on another Trinity error, a wild pitch, a hit-by-pitch and an RBI single by senior 1B Joel Reynolds (West Des Moines, Iowa).

Trinity senior OF Matt Engster (Glastonbury, Conn.) opened the game by reaching base on a Knight fielding error, and senior co-captain 3B Jeff Natale (Hamden, Conn.) followed with a double to left field to put two runners in scoring position. After a walk by senior OF Aaron Goldstein (Edina, Minn.), classmate Andrew Fries (Dublin, Ohio) scored Engster on a force play from shortstop to second base. Scherbring got the next two outs on a strikeout and a fly ball to keep the score at 1-0.

Wartburg started its half of the first frame with singles by senior OF Aaron Port (Nevada, Iowa) and sophomore 2B Marc Numedahl (Urbandale, Iowa) off Bantam sophomore starter Tim Kiely (Swampscott, Mass.). After a sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third, Reynolds grounded to third base and Port scored the tying run. The Knights put up the deciding, unearned runs off Kiely in the third frame on a leadoff walk by junior OF Patrick Henderson (Iowa City, Iowa), an error by Bantam sophomore SS Tim Bourdon (Simsbury, Conn.), and a two-out, two-run errant throw by Natale.

Trinity put runners on first and second base in the sixth and seventh innings and had Bantams at first and third in the top of the ninth, but failed to score leaving 10 runners stranded over nine innings. With one out in the ninth frame, Trinity senior OF Rob O’Leary (North Easton, Mass.) smacked a double to right field and freshman Chandler Barnard (Lubbock, Texas) delivered a pinch-hit, infield single, but Scherbring again worked out of trouble to end the game. Kiely allowed just a single earned runs and four hits with three K’s and one walk in a complete-game effort, while O’Leary and Natale each had two hits for the Bantams.