Tahan’s 9th-Inning Hit Puts Kingsmen in Final

Chris Tahan capped a perfect day at the plate by hitting a run-scoring single in the bottom of the ninth inning Friday to lift Cal Lutheran over Chapman, 9-8, and into today’s final of the NCAA Division III West Regional baseball playoffs at Georgetown, Texas.

Tahan, who went five for five with two runs batted in, broke an 8-8 tie with a two-out, bases-loaded single to left, driving in Brian Malchow.

Cal Lutheran (30-12) will play top-seeded Chapman (39-4) again at 11 a.m. (PST) today. A loss by the Kingsmen, who are 2-0 in the double-elimination tournament, would force a second game at 4:30 p.m. Chapman beat host Southwestern, 10-8, in Friday’s late elimination game.

Cal Lutheran reached its fifth regional final in eight seasons after squandering several leads against Chapman, which had beaten the Kingsmen in three of four regular-season games.

Chapman scored five runs in the last three innings, including three in the ninth, to erase deficits of 6-3 after the sixth and 8-5 after the eighth.

The Kingsmen scored the winning run after Malchow reached base on an error, was sacrificed to second and advanced to third on a single by pinch-hitter Nick Lawson. Eric Medina was intentionally walked, bringing up Tahan, the No. 8 batter.

Medina and Ryan Yoshiwara supported Tahan with three hits each for Cal Lutheran, which trailed, 3-2, after three innings.

With a victory today, the Kingsmen will make their fifth appearance in the eight-team Division III College World Series, scheduled for May 29-June 1 in Salem, Va.