SALISBURY, Md. - The Shenandoah University baseball team will be making its first trip to the NCAA Division III World Series next week after downing Johns Hopkins 11-7 Saturday afternoon in the South Region championship.

Shenandoah (37-8) wins the institution's first-ever NCAA Regional title with the victory over the Blue Jays (28-16).

The Hornets will take part in the World Series in Appleton, Wisconsin beginning on May 22.

Trailing 5-0 after JHU scored four runs in the first and one more in the second, SU gradually chipped away until finally breaking through in what turned out to be the team's final at-bat of the regional.

Kevin Brashears, who was named as the Most Outstanding Player of the regional, got things started in the third with a two-run HR to left.

Freshman Cory Nelson, who joined Brashears on the All-Tournament team, scored the team's third run with a solo dinger in the fourth.

Hopkins scored a pair in the top of the fifth to extend its lead to 7-3 before the Hornets answered with one in the bottom of the frame.

Neither team did any damage in the sixth, setting the stage for Shenandoah's seven-run eighth.

Ten men came to the plate in the frame with Brashears, Jesse Henry, Greg Van Sickler, Jasen Eberz and Jon Holcomb all driving in runs. Holcomb ended up scoring what proved to be the game-winning run when a scampered home on a wild pitch during Henry's at-bat.

The late-game heroics made a winner of senior Gage Levac (4-3), who pitched 4.0 innings of scoreless relief one day after tossing 5 1/3 innings of relief against Christopher Newport.

Matthew Davis recorded the final out of the game on a flyout.

In addition to Brashears and Nelson, Henry and Van Sickler were also named All-Tournament.

Notes: This is the first championship of any kind for the baseball team since winning the Eastern States Athletic Conference title in 1991... The Hornets will have a practice at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium on May 21 at 2:20 p.m... Shenandoah's first-round opponent is Farmingdale (N.Y.) State on May 22 at 4:30 CDT (5:30 Eastern)...

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