Endicott’s road to the national title took a bit of a detour Friday afternoon.
The No. 1 ranked Gulls dropped their first game at the Division 3 College World Series, 7-2, to defending national champion Lynchburg. It was the first loss in 23 games for Endicott (now 46-3), which plays an elimination game Saturday morning against Ponoma-Pitzer in Eastlake, Ohio.
The first leg of the World Series is a four-team, double-elimination bracket, so the Gulls are now aiming to rattle off four straight wins over the next few days to reach the national championship series.
“One at a time. We have to win four games and we know we have a team that can do that,” said Endicott head coach Bryan Haley. “No one’s panicking. We’re going to go out (Saturday), compete our tails off and find a way to win.”
Wesley Arrington of Lynchburg threw a complete game to beat the Gulls, scattering 10 hits. His slider was tough to read, and he was particularly effective when Endicott threatened for a big inning in the eighth but left the bases loaded.
“He executed his pitches at an extremely high level,” Haley said. “They played excellent defense and they beat us pretty cleanly.”
Lynchburg (36-15) jumped ahead 4-0 in the second inning. Brandon Garcia (2-for-5, 3 RBI) had a 2-run single to help open up the lead after an error, and it was a 6-0 game through six innings.
The Gulls’ Jordan Gottesman, an All-American left-hander who entered the game 11-0 on the season, took his first loss in scattering seven hits over 5 2/3 innings.
“I didn’t feel like I pitched my best, but that’s baseball,” said Gottesman. “You just have to come back and be ready to compete. The key is to stay confident.”
Back-to-back doubles by Brendan O’Neil and Danny MacDougall got Endicott on the board in the sixth, making it a 6-2 game. The Gulls left one on base in that frame and stranded eight for the game, so their inability to get early damage on Arrington came back to bite them.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit in the first half of games,” said O’Neil, “so as a team we want to come out and throw that first punch (Saturday).”
MacDougall, Joey Frammartino, Dylan Pacheco and Robbie Wladkowski all had two hits each for Endicott, with Nic Notarangelo adding a single and scoring a run.
Out of the bullpen, Kyan Bagshaw got an out, Chris Jenkins fanned threw over two frames, and John Connolly threw a scoreless ninth.
As the No. 1 ranked team in the country for much of the year and the top seed in this World Series, Endicott hopes to grab its first-ever World Series win Saturday morning.
“When you only lose three times in 50 games, you don’t get a lot of chances to show how tough you are,” said Haley. “I believe we are that kind of the team, we are resilient. Ultimately, this is our test now: Can we show how we can bounce back?”