APPLETON, Wis. -- The Texas Lutheran Bulldogs forced the "if necessary" game for Pool B of the NCAA Division III Baseball World Series with a 9-7 win Sunday night and Monday morning against Concordia University Chicago.

TLU fought off elimination in the D3 World Series for a second consecutive game. The Bulldogs defeated Swarthmore (Pa.) 3-2 in 13 innings earlier in the day.

The Bulldogs and the Concordia Chicago Cougars will meet again (for the third time in the tournament) at 3:30 p.m. Monday. The winner collects the Pool B mini-tournament win and gets the right to face either the University of Texas at Tyler or Randolph-Macon (Va.) for the national championship in a best 2-out-of-3 series.

TLU improved to 41-10 overall with its third win of the World Series. Concordia dropped its first game of the championship. The Cougars are now 40-14.

The game started at 9:44 p.m. and ended at 12:58 a.m. Monday morning.

Texas Lutheran broke a 6-6 tie with three runs in the top of the ninth. Spencer Brandt (Yoakum/Yoakum) drove in the winning run with a single through the left side.

TLU added two more runs in the frame and gave Drew Waller (Bellville/Bellville) a three-run cushion.

The Cougars scratched across one run in the bottom of the ninth before Thomas Varner (Austin/Bowie) made a diving stab and then a strong throw to nip a runner at first to end the game.

Waller picked up the victory and improved to 6-2 overall. Alex Meyers took the loss. He fell to 6-3.

Senior right-hander Clint Johns (Orland, Calif./Orland) entered the game in the second inning and tossed six important innings that allowed TLU to rally from a 3-0 deficit in the first. Johns struck out seven and surrendered just two runs.

Riley Schaefer (Thorndale/Thorndale) collected a pair of hits and drove in three runs, and Keaton Boysen (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain) recorded three hits and scored twice.

Brandt scored three times and had two hits and an RBI, and Matthew Lemon (Caldwell/Caldwell) went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Thomas Varner also had two hits, and he drove in a run.