APPLETON, Wis.--In the first round of the Division III Baseball Championship, Swarthmore College lost 9-4 to No. 8-ranked Concordia Chicago on Friday.
It was Swarthmore's first loss since April 21. The Garnet (37-10) won 14 games in a row.
Swarthmore plays in an elimination game on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET against No. 4 Wooster College (40-9).
In their first DIII World Series game in program history, the Garnet went down 3-0 in the first inning.
Junior
Ricky Conti, named an ABCA third-team All-American on Thursday, settled in over the next two innings by holding the Cougars scoreless.
The Garnet scored twice in the top of the third, making the score 3-2. Junior
Charles Levitt led off with a double, sophomore
Cole Beeker moved him to the third with a single, and junior
Jackson Roberts scored Levitt on a double to right field. Sophomore
Jared Gillen drove in Beeker on a sacrifice fly.
Concordia blanked the Garnet over the next three innings. It was 8-2 Cougars before Swarthmore scored its next run, which came on a single by junior
Conor Elliott that allowed Beeker to reach home.
Senior
Max Kassan entered the game in relief of Conti and pitched 1.1 innings of no-run baseball. His ERA is a team-best 0.68 in 13.1 innings this season.
Swarthmore scored its last run on a double by Gillen off the left field wall.
The Garnet recorded 13 hits in the loss. Elliott had three of them, and Levitt, senior
Matt Palmer and sophomore
Kenji Yoshii had two each. It's the 18th time this season that the team has compiled at least 13 hits in a game.
If Swarthmore beats the Fighting Scots on Saturday, they'll continue on and play on Sunday at 2:15 p.m. ET at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.