MARIETTA, Ohio — Brian Brewer has been around Marietta College baseball for 16 seasons, so he understands when someone says, "That was a typical Etta Express win."

No. 1 Marietta (39-3) scratched and clawed its way to a 7-2 victory over Frostburg State (28-15) in Game 4 of the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional at Don Schaly Stadium. [Box Score]

"I thought our guys did a nice job against one of the best pitchers we've seen this year," Brewer said. "We had to manufacture runs tonight, so we put the ball in play. We bunted. We did some hit-and-runs. You can't play station-to-station against a guy like (Greg Ross)."

Ross (11-2) was spectacular, but not perfect. He allowed seven hits and seven runs, but only two were earned. He also struck out 10 Marietta batters.

"This certainly wasn't a 7-2 game," Brewer said. "He was special. His slider was sharp and he had three solid pitches."

Like Brewer said, Marietta put the ball in play and found a way to score some runs. Going into the eighth inning, the game was still in doubt with the Pioneers leading 3-2.

In the eighth, Marietta scored four runs on three hits. However, two passed balls by Corey Carr and an error by third baseman Doug Anuszewski sparked the Pioneers to the big inning.

Marietta's hitting star of the night was No. 9 hitter Alex Toth (Painesville/Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin), who went 3-for-4 with two RBI. He is now hitting just .226.

"I was just seeing the ball well and I thought he'd throw fast balls to me because I'm in the nine hole," Marietta's catcher said.

Shortstop Tim Saunders (Alliance/Alliance) went 2-for-4 with an RBI and his 22nd stolen base of the season. Second baseman Kirby Becker (South Euclid/St. Ignatius) also had a single and one RBI.

Marietta's Brian Gasser (New Philadelphia/Indian Valley) improved to 12-0, despite being a little shaky at times.

"I didn't have my best stuff. I couldn't get comfortable on the mound," he said.

Brewer decided to lift him in the sixth inning because Gasser wasn't locating his fastball.

"If he doesn't have control of his fast ball then he isn't as effective," Brewer said. "We went to (Mark Williams (Fayetteville/Perry)) because I liked where we were in the line up."

Williams threw hard for two innings and didn't give up a run and struck out two. Kyle Lindquist (Columbus/Worthington Kilbourne), Marietta's closer, threw the final 1 1/3 innings for his 10th save—single season and career records at Marietta.

Frostburg State's Adam Sumerfelt, John Barrett and Daniel Jester each had two hits in the loss. The Bobcats were eliminated from the tournament after going 0-2 for the day. They lost the first game of the regional 3-2 to Franklin.

Marietta plays Franklin at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.