MARIETTA, Ohio — Adrian College senior Gage Ricker tossed the first complete game of his career as the Bulldogs eliminated the University of Mary Washington by the score of 5-1 Saturday (May 20) afternoon in the NCAA Regional Tournament.

Mary Washington finishes the season with a 28-16 overall record. Adrian improves to 26-20 on the season and will play the loser of the Marietta versus Case Western Reserve game at approximately 8:30 p.m. Saturday night.

"Obviously, when you're in the elimination game, you don't have any more chances to be on the wrong side of the scoreboard. So we went with a guy that that's done it for us all year," Adrian head coach Craig Rainey. "Even though he's not been our starter, he's been one of the best guys out of the pen for us. So, we gave him the ball and obviously he delivered in a big way."

Ricker (3-0) kept the Eagle hitters off balance with a variety of off-speed pitches holding them scoreless until the ninth inning. Ricker allowed one run on seven hits with one walk and five strikeouts.

Ricker's counterpart, Mary Washington starter Justin Ritz (4-5) also went the distance in the losing effort. He allowed five runs on nine hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

Adrian jumped on top in the bottom of the first inning. Jack Boike reached on a one-out walk and moved to second on a groundout. An infield single from AJ Miranda gave the Bulldogs runners at the corners. Ryan Davis followed with a two-out RBI single to left scoring Boike with the first run of the game.

A solo home run off the bat of Edward Wagner made it 2-0 after three innings. Adrian rallied with two outs for another run in the sixth. Easton Rogers doubled down the left field line. Linken Hayward plated Rogers with a single to right extending the lead to 3-0.

The Bulldogs added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Wagner walked and was lifted for a pinch runner. But the speedier runner was irrelevant as Rogers deposited a 2-1 pitch over the right field wall pushing the lead to 5-0.

Mary Washington tried to battle back in the top of the ninth, but could only manage one run on an RBI double from Bobby Ayscue before Ricker struck out the last batter of the game.

Rogers led the Bulldog attack going 3-for-4 with a double, a home run, two runs scored and two RBI. Miranda and Hayward had two hits each.

Ayscue was the lone Eagle with two hits in the game.