5
Shenandoah Hornets SUB 38-9
7
Winner Illinois Wesleyan IWU 28-20
Shenandoah Hornets SUB
38-9
5
Final
7
Illinois Wesleyan IWU
28-20
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Shenandoah Hornets SUB 0 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 5 10 1
Illinois Wesleyan IWU 4 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 X 7 14 2

W: Pankau (10-2) L: Van Sickler, Greg (8-3)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Scott Musa, Assistant AD

Titans Take Opener

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. – Central Regional champion Illinois Wesleyan sent No. 7/9 Shenandoah University into the loser's bracket of the 2010 NCAA Division III Baseball Championships with a 7-5 win Friday night in the final game of day one.

Shenandoah (38-9) will play No. 1 Johns Hopkins tomorrow at 1:15 CT in an elimination contest. The Blue Jays were sent into the loser's bracket when No. 2 Heidelberg took a 3-2 decision in the game immediately preceding the SU/IWU tilt.

Illinois Wesleyan (28-20) jumped all over Hornets starter Greg Van Sickler (8-3) for four runs on five hits in the bottom of the first to take a lead they would not relinquish.

After leadoff hitter Brett Moore reached on a single through the left side and was sacrificed to second, Titans first baseman Casey McIntosh crushed a Van Sickler offering over the 20-foot wall in left for a 2-0 advantage.

Unfortunately for SU, the scenario repeated itself two batters later.

This time, Ryan Hopp singled through the left side before Jeff Grodecki made it 4-0 with a dinger to virtually the same spot as McIntosh's homer.

Shenandoah cut the deficit in half in the top of the second with two unearned runs, the second on an RBI single by Keaton Neeb, but gave one of those back in the bottom of the frame.

Senior Scott Van Dusseldorp plated the Hornets next run with a double down the left-field line in the third – Jesse Henry scored on the play after getting on via a leadoff single.

The two teams traded one run each in the sixth with Cory Nelson briefly bringing SU to within one with a solo HR to lead off the Hornets half.

Shenandoah's final run came in the ninth when Kevin Brashears had a leadoff double to left and advanced to third on a Henry groundout. Van Sickler then brought his fellow first team All-American home with a single to left center.

Van Sickler allowed six runs on 12 hits and two walks in 6.0 innings. He struck out seven before turning it over to Bobby Stefanowicz to start the seventh.

Jason Pankau (10-2) went the distance for IWU, giving up five runs (three earned) on 10 hits and one walk.

Brashears, Neeb and Nelson all had two hits each for SU.

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