Hornets roll in first round of World Series

By Jason Galleske -- sports@nvdaily.com

APPLETON, Wis. -- "Ouch."

That was the first word uttered by Farmingdale State College coach Keith Osik about the dominance of Shenandoah University in the Hornets' 12-2 opening-round win in the Division 3 World Series on Friday.

He didn't waste any time after that assessing the dominant performance of Greg Van Sickler either. Van Sickler pitched a complete game, allowing no earned runs, seven hits, walking only one and striking out five.

"He single-handedly beat us today with the way he attacked the hitters," Osik said. "He mixed it up enough. When you come with strike one and you're aggressive from a pitching standpoint, it makes it a lot easier for their offense to chip away and we obviously gave them a lot of runs."

The Hornets (38-8) will play the winner of Chapman University/University of St. Thomas in a winner's bracket game today at 8:45 p.m.

Van Sickler baffled the Rams hitters from the start as he threw 27 of 34 first-pitch strikes.

"The biggest, most important pitch is strike number one," Van Sickler said. "It makes me able to utilize the rest of my pitches. I only have two more. It really helps to help baffle the hitters a little bit because when you fall behind, my curveball and change-up aren't my 2-0 pitches, so strike one is the most important to me."

The sophomore hurler has been nearly flawless in his last four starts. In his last 34 innings, he's allowed just three runs, only one of them earned.

"I guess I figured how to pitch just a little bit," he said. "Especially what coach said, 'Being successful, you've got to have three pitches,' and tonight the good Lord gave me three and gave me a change-up, which is nice."

The offense didn't slump either as the Hornets smacked 16 hits and scored at least a run in every inning but the fifth and ninth.

Shenandoah scored a run in the first inning off of four straight walks issued by Rams pitcher Steve King, who was removed after the first inning.

"It took a little pressure off of us to get a couple runners on base without us getting a hit and that way we could turn around and get some more hits and score some more runs," Shenandoah's Cory Nelson said. "I think being able to get on base was huge for us."

Nelson saw a fastball that he was looking for in the eighth that turned into a two-run home run to left. The Hornets scored six runs in that inning to help bury the Rams.

"I was having trouble seeing pitches all night and he threw it and I hit it," Nelson said.

That said, he still didn't know it was going to be a homer until it landed into the seats.

"I wasn't sure," he said. "I didn't get all of it."