Scott Tourville led the Engineers in batting, doubles, home runs, runs, RBIs and hits... and will return to lead the attack in 2005.

TERRE HAUTE, IND. - The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology baseball team was left out of the 42-team NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament, despite recording the third-most victories in the nation during the regular season.

Rose-Hulman compiled a 36-8 record, including its second consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Eastern Division championship.  The Engineers then finished third in the SCAC Tournament at Oglethorpe last month.

Rose-Hulman was competing for one of three bids in the at-large "Pool C" of the 2004 NCAA Division III Tournament.  The Pool C recipients were Carthage College (34-9), George Fox University (31-9) and Cortland State University (28-14).  The at-large bids were available to teams who were unable to capture their conference's automatic qualification.

The Engineers completed the regular season tied for third in the nation in victories, including the most wins among any team left out of the NCAA Division III Tournament.  The only teams in the nation with more wins than Rose-Hulman were Pool B independent qualifier Emory (40-4) and automatic qualifier Johns Hopkins (37-2).  

Rose-Hulman also compiled a 5-2 record against teams in the NCAA Division III Tournament, including wins over regional top seeds Wisconsin-Whitewater and Illinois Wesleyan.  The Engineers also defeated Juniata and split two games against both Trinity (Texas) and Albion.

Junior Nathan Soyer finished 8-1 on the mound with a 3.34 ERA in 72.2 innings of work for the Engineers.

In addition to Rose-Hulman, other top bubble teams that were left out of the tournament included Wisconsin-Oshkosh (35-9), Millsaps (33-9), the University of Texas-Dallas (33-8),  Denison University (31-7) and Trinity of Connecticut (27-9).

Rose-Hulman batted .338 as a team with 114 doubles and 32 home runs this season.  The pitching staff compiled a 3.62 earned run average, while the team's fielding percentage of .948 ranks third in school history. 

Junior Scott Tourville (Westerville, Ohio/North) led the offense with a .441 batting average, 20 doubles and eight home runs.  Freshman Matt Salisbury (Fort Wayne/ Homestead) batted .373 with 17 doubles and a school record five pitching saves.

Other top hitters included junior Brad Jones (Jeffersonville) at .366 with four home runs; senior Matt Moore (Evansville/Harrison) at .359 with 17 doubles and seven home runs; and senior Cort Severns (Manito, Ill./Midwest Central) at .344 including career school records for hits (186) and doubles (48).

On the mound, junior Nathan Soyer (Norwalk, Iowa) led the staff with an 8-1 record in 72.2 innings of work with a 3.34 ERA.  Senior Mike Tranter (Staunton, Ill.) finished a perfect 7-0 with a 3.04 ERA, while junior Josh Hogan (Terre Haute/North) finished 3-1 with a 3.86 ERA in 56 innings of work.

In addition, Jeff Jenkins earned his 400th career coaching victory during the Engineers four-game sweep over Centre.  Jenkins has a career record of 414-286-2, including a school record mark of 369-221-1 in 15 years at Rose-Hulman.

Return to Rose-Hulman Baseball page