Box Score

MARIETTA, Ohio — Maybe an unplanned day off from baseball was exactly what La Roche's baseball team needed.

At least that's the way La Roche coach Chase Rowe is looking at things after his Redhawks bounced back with a 7-1 victory Penn State-Berks in the second day of action at the 2014 NCAA Division III Mideast Regional at Marietta College's Don Schaly Stadium.

"In these tournaments a team can get hot, so if you lose one day sometimes the guys have a tough time recovering the next day," Rowe said. "The day off was a little bit of a break and who knows maybe we can make a little run here."

While it rained most of the day Thursday, the La Roche players watched the Pirates lose to the Brewers and got in some lifting at Marietta College. The free time didn't relax all of the La Roche (31-14) players, though.

Starting pitcher Tyler Ferguson (11-4) said the extended played havoc with his nerves.

"Going through everything being cancelled yesterday got to my nerves. I get excited to pitch," Ferguson said. "We just had to take it pitch-by-pitch and inning-by-inning today. We can't think about what's down the road. That's what I did today and that was my approach."

Ferguson delivered the type of performance the Redhawks needed after dropping their regional opener to Widener 8-1. He struck out 10 and allowed just four hits in the complete-game win. Even the run he gave up was unearned.

Rowe was not surprised by what he saw on Friday.

"He's our guy and I think he's one of the best pitchers in the country. The stats show that," Rowe said. "It's what we expected him to do today and we're glad to have him."

La Roche catcher Matt Sabatini said it's what he has seen out of Ferguson over the past three years.

"It's always electric," Sabatini said. "If he's on there's really not a team that's going to touch him. With those two pitches on like they were you knew it was going to be a dominant performance."

You won't get an argument from Berks coach Justin Konnick.

"He did everything he needed to do to win the game," Konnick said. "That's probably one of the best pitchers we have seen this year."

Sabatini had a nice game behind the plate, but he also contributed with some timely hits out of the No. 9 spot. He finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and scored a run.

"I was just looking to put something in play with guys getting on base ahead of me," he said.

Shortstop Sean Lubin also went 2-for-4 with one RBI and third baseman Colin Williamson had two RBI.

Rowe understands his squad still has a tough road to get out of the regional, but he likes the momentum the Redhawks picked up Friday.

"It's important to get some confidence and I feel like we have some momentum now," Rowe said. "We have Walt Hadjuk (6-2) throwing tomorrow — he's a quality left-handed pitcher. Then we have Jesse Bauer (3-2), who is our No. 4 but he was an all-region guy last year. We have some arms left and I think we can make a run at it."

The run is over for Penn State-Berks (19-21), but Konnick believes getting into the regional will be motivation in the future.

"The guys coming back had a taste of what this is like and we want to taste it some more," he said. "The goal was to come here and make some noise, but for us the noise wasn't too loud."

Up next for La Roche is a meeting with the loser of Salisbury and Case Western at 1 p.m., Saturday.