The first game of the day proved to be a pitchers’ duel between two of the top pitchers in the NCCAA East Region as senior lefty Levi Curry (left) of MVNU and the Warriors’ Phil Messerian matched each other scoreless inning for scoreless inning through the first six innings of the scheduled seven-inning game.

Then, in the top of the seventh inning, junior second baseman Josh Estep drew a lead-off walk and was bunted to second by senior designated hitter Marc Hadley. Sophomore catcher Travis McInerney followed with an RBI-single to centerfield to plate Estep with the first run of the game as the No. 2 seed Cougars (34-19) took a 1-0 lead.

Curry returned to the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning and retired No. 3 seed Nyack (12-29) in order to close third shutout of the year and eighth complete game to improve his record to 8-3. Curry allowed just two hits and one hit batsman in the contest as he went all seven innings with six strikeouts. He also retired the final eight batters that he faced and helped himself with four assists.

Messerian (3-5) suffered the hard-luck loss as he gave up just four hits, two walks, and one run over seven innings with four strikeouts.

McInerney collected half of MVNU’s four hits as he went 2-for-3 with the game-winning RBI. Freshman outfielder Steve Williams added a lead-off double in the top of the third inning, and senior shortstop Ross Yoder had a one-out single in the top of the sixth inning.

Messerian also helped himself at the plate as he went 1-for-2 with an infield single with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning to break up Curry’s no-hit bid. He also was hit by a pitch. The Warriors’ only other hit was a one-out single through the left side of the infield by Oscar Ortiz in the bottom of the fifth inning.

After No. 1 seed Malone College (38-13) eliminated Nyack from the tournament with a 5-0 victory with all five runs coming in the bottom of the third inning, the Pioneers and the Cougars squared off in the third game of the day which would officially go down as the first game in a best-of-three series between the two teams to determine the NCCAA East Region champion.

MVNU got on the scoreboard first in the bottom of the first inning when senior third baseman Richey Burgos (right) lined a two-out home run over the fence in leftfield to give the Cougars an early 1-0 lead. It was Burgos’ team-leading 13th homer of the year and the 35th of his illustrious career.

Malone answered with an unearned run in the top of the second inning to knot the score at 1-1 as Zach Winkhart reached on a throwing error to lead off the inning, moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a ground out to second, and came in on John Stallings’ RBI-ground out to third.

MVNU responded with two runs in the bottom of the second inning to go back in front 3-1. Sophomore first baseman Matt Parks lined a one-out double to leftfield and moved to third on sophomore outfielder Kodi Veale’s single to put runners at first and third. Parks came in to score on Williams’ RBI-ground out to first with Veale moving on to second, and Yoder followed with a run-scoring single up the middle to score Veale all the way from second.

The Pioneers answered with three runs in the top of the third inning to take the lead 4-3. Mike Tozzi led off with a double to rightfield and Troy Richeson was hit by a pitch. After Scott McIlvain bunted the runners to second and third, Ryan Baechel struck out swinging for the second out of the inning. However, the Cougars were unable to close out the threat as Zac Barson lined a two-run single to leftfield and moved to second on the throw to the plate. Winkhart followed with a single up the middle that plated Barson as Malone grabbed the lead.

From there, both pitchers were in control as MVNU managed just one hit the rest of the way and the Pioneers were limited to two hits as neither team was able to score again with Malone posting the 4-3 victory to go up one game to none in the best-of-three series.

Jeffrey Shenker (3-1) posted the victory for the Pioneers as he allowed just six hits, one walk, and three runs over seven innings with two strikeouts in tossing the first complete game of his career.

Junior right-hander Jason Decker (7-6) took the loss for the Cougars as he allowed six hits, two walks, four runs (three earned) with four strikeouts. Malone was able to get its lead-off batter on base in four of the seven innings in the game as Decker was constantly trying to put out Pioneer rallies.

Offensively, six different MVNU players had one hit with Parks’ double and Burgos’ home run being the only extra base hits. Meanwhile, Malone also had six different players with a hit with Tozzi’s double being the lone one for extra bases. McInerney also threw out his first two base runners of the year for the Cougars held the Pioneers without a stolen base after they entered the game with 98 steals on the season.

With the loss, MVNU must now win two games against Malone on Friday in order to capture the NCCAA East Region title. The two teams will return to action with the first game slated to get under way at 11:00 a.m. and the if necessary game would follow at 1:30 p.m. The NCCAA East Region champion receives an automatic berth in the NCCAA National Tournament in Struthers, Ohio, that gets under way next Wednesday. The runner-up could also receive an at-large berth. All of Friday’s action can once again be heard at http://wnzr.fm/sports.html with Chris Miller and Dave Parsons providing the play-by-play and color commentary.