Atlanta, Ga. ? Eric Rose went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI as no. 3 seed Michigan eliminated no. 4 seed Stetson 11-1 in the second day of the NCAA Atlanta Regional Saturday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Paul Hammond tossed a complete-game six-hitter as the Wolverines (43-20) advanced to play again on Sunday.
The Hatters, who fell 7-5 to top-seed Georgia Tech earlier in the day, went 0-2 in the NCAA tournament for the second straight year and finished the season with a 38-24 record.
"I am real proud of these kids," Stetson coach Pete Dunn said. "We struggled early in the year but got it back together and went through the conference tournament undefeated to get here. We would have loved to come in here and got some ?W's, but it didn't happen."
Stetson took an early 1-0 lead when Braedyn Pruitt doubled and scored on Chris Johnson's single in the bottom of the first inning.
But Michigan rallied for four runs in the top of the second on six hits ? five singles and a two-run home run by Rose.
The Wolverines added a single run in the fifth, then broke the game open with five runs in the sixth. Nate Rechnagel's three-run double highlighted the inning.
"We came out after a tough loss and got a run in the first inning, but they did a good job of answering with four in the top of the second," Dunn said. "They swung the bats with a lot of aggressiveness and put the game away early. We thought down four, five, or even six we had a chance to come back, but they just kept tacking on runs and putting it out of reach."
Hammond (8-4) did not allow a run after the first inning, and allowed just six hits and one walk while striking out five.
"Hammond just did a great job," Dunn said. "We just never had any real good swings at him. When we did have some opportunities to score he pitched out of a jam. We never could get anything going offensively. I think fatigue started to set in and our bats were a little slow."
Chris Ingoglia (6-2) suffered just his second loss of the season.
Michigan pounded out 17 hits, the most by a Stetson opponent this season. Chris Johnson had two hits to lead the Hatters, giving him 29 multi-hit games on the season.
"When you get this far in the year and you can't play anymore you start looking forward to next year," Dunn said. "And I am real happy about our kids coming back and our recruiting class coming in. Now we just have to wait and worry about the draft next week."
Box Score
Notes: Stetson fell to 15-30 all-time in NCAA play ... The Hatters had to play-back-to-back games in each of the last two Regionals ... Brandon Paritz moved into ninth place in school history with 225 games played ... Braedyn Pruitt recorded his fourth NCAA tournament double (two last year, two this year) ... Chris Johnson's hit .376 on the season and owns a school-record .379 career batting average ... Robbie Elsemiller finished the season with 37 appearances, the fourth most in school history ... Chris Ingoglia became the first Hatter in four years to throw over 100 innings on the season (103.0 IP) ... Photos from the regional and other Stetson games can be viewed at www.fotoactions.com.
