Tournament Most Outstanding Player Joe Gunkel tossed his second complete game shutout of the National Finals as West Chester University captured its first-ever NCAA Division II Baseball National Championship with a 9-0 victory over Delta State University in the Championship Game of the 2012 NCAA Division II Baseball National Finals Saturday at USA Baseball National Training Center in Cary.
The Rams gave Gunkel all the run support he needed with a five-run first inning as the Rams went unbeaten in the NCAA Tournament and ended the season with 12 consecutive wins. The NCAA II Baseball National Finals are co-hosted by Town of Cary and Mount Olive College.
A crowd of 2,663 was on hand for the championship game, the largest NCAA II Baseball National Finals attendance since the tournament came to Cary in 2009.
West Chester (46-10) placed five players on the All-Tournament Team. Joining Gunkel were infielders Joe Wendle and Josh Heyne, along with outfielders Jack Provine and Mike Raimo. Delta State (49-15) was represented by infielder Tyler Aldridge and outfielders Jordan Chovanec and Michael Vinson. Rounding out the All-Tournament Team were outfielder Mike Eckhart and pitcher Tyler Ockuly of Minnesota State, and Catawba infielder Julio Zubillaga.
Three walks and three hits enabled West Chester’s first six batters to reach base in the bottom of the first. Raimo drew a leadoff walk and Provine followed with a double down the left field line. Wendle drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases.
Chris Pula lifted a fly ball to shallow right field that dropped in between the Delta State first baseman, second baseman and right fielder to drive in the first run of the game. Justin Lamborn drew a bases loaded walk to make it a 2-0 game.
Matt Baer followed with a looper just over the third baseman as both Provine and Wendle scored to extend the Rams’ lead to 4-0. Delta State reliever Ricky Winters took over for starter Colton Mitchell and struck out the first batter looking for the first out of the inning. Heyne followed with a single to left and Lamborn scored from second to give West Chester a 5-0 lead.
Winters retired the next two batters as the Rams sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning.
One-out doubles led to single runs in the second and third innings as West Chester extended its lead to 7-0. Wendle doubled down the right field line in the second and scored on Dula’s single up the middle. In the bottom of the third, Matt Kirchner doubled down the left field line and beat the throw to the plate on Raimo’s line single down the right field line.
The Rams completed the scoring in the bottom of the fifth as Kirchner scored from second on Heyne’s single through the right side. Heyne came all the way home when the ball was misplayed in right field and went all the way to the wall.
Gunkel (10-1) withstood two hit batsmen and a walk in the first two innings before allowing a leadoff single to Chovanec in the top of the third. Gunkel had taken a no-hitter into the ninth inning in West Chester’s tournament opener against Chico State one week earlier.
Gunkel allowed baserunners in each of the first five innings before recording his first 1-2-3 inning in the sixth. Delta State stranded seven runners in the first five innings and West Chester turned an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play in the fourth. The Rams also turned a double play in the eighth when Raimo caught a fly ball near the warning track in center and the relay from Heyne to Wendle got the Delta State runner trying to tag and advance to second.
In the top of the ninth, Gunkel retired the first two batters on groundouts before Brent Kakwitch singled to delay the West Chester celebration. But Gunkel ended the game on a fly out to right field and Rams players “dogpiled” on the infield grass.
Gunkel finished with a five-hitter, all singles. He recorded one strikeout and threw 116 pitches.
The shutout was the eighth in the national championship game in the 44-year history of the NCAA II Baseball National Finals and the first since 1996.
West Chester becomes the northernmost school to win the national championship. Eastern Illinois set the previous geographical record in 1969, the second year of the championship.
Including the Atlantic Regional, West Chester posted a perfect 8-0 record in the 2012 NCAA Division II Baseball Championship. The Rams outscored their four opponents in the National Finals by a margin of 28-8.
Post-Game Quotes
“Getting that five spot changes the course of the game. It limits some of the things they want to do and like to do a little bit. We had some mishit balls that fell and when you play one single baseball game, if you get some of those things, good things can happen to you.”
West Chester head coach Jad Prachniak
“All year we’ve been talking about shutdown innings after our team scores. You want to go out there and throw the ball so they can hit it to our defense. All the credit should go to them. I was just the one throwing the ball, they were the ones making the plays.”
West Chester pitcher and National Finals Most Outstanding Player Joe Gunkel
“My face hurt a little bit after getting slammed into the ground. Being on the bottom of the dogpile was probably one of the most painful but best feelings ever in the world.”
West Chester pitcher Joe Gunkel
“I don’t know if anything went right for us, right from the very start. And they took advantage of that. Down 5-0 in the first, down 7-0 in the third against the guy they had on the mound is not where you want to be. I’m very aware we only had one strikeout, but that’s what he (West Chester pitcher Joe Gunkel) does, he pounds the strike zone. We were just plagued too much here by hitting too many balls in the air, too many routine outs. But credit to him, that’s what he does. He fills the strike zone up, he’s big and strong, he challenges you with the fastball, and he was very good in this tournament and well deserving of the MVP.”
Delta State head coach Mike Kinnison
“You’ve got to give credit to West Chester. They played well throughout the whole game. We’ve had luck all year coming back from behind, but it just ran out.”
Delta State catcher Jon Carnahan