HAVERFORD, Pa.-Eastern University Baseball hit a season-best four home runs and held off a late charge to earn an 11-9 non-league win at Haverford College. Greg DeSarro hit two home runs and collected three RBIs for the Eagles (15-13).

Eastern scored five times in the top of the first. After Brendan Spall walked in the lead-off Spot, Eric Rossi hit his first career homer to put the Eagles up 2-0. After Tyler Orr flied out, DeSarro hit his first of the day down the left-field line. Angelo Kelly walked and Anthony Messina singled. Ryan McMenamin drove in Kelly with a fly ball to center and Messina scored on an RBI single from Joe Grato. 

Winning pitcher Barry Jost worked out of jams in the first and second without allowing a run. After the Eastern lead swelled to 7-0 on a Messina home run to left in the third, Jost found himself in a little trouble that he could not escape in the third. After two clean singles to start the inning, Jost retired the next two batters on outs in the air. Haverford Catcher Sam Kane hit a ball through the right side to close the gap to 7-2.

The two teams both added two runs in the fourth. The Eagles picked up their runs on a DeSarro home run to right center after Rossi walked. Haverford needed three hits and a bases loaded walk to plate two of Jost (2-0). Neither team scored in the fifth, and Jost gave way to the Eastern bullpen with the Eagles up 9-4. While he allowed four runs and 11 hits in five innings, Jost worked out of trouble and most importantly gave his team a chance to win.

Devon Ziegenfuss came on for his second outing of the year in the sixth. The Fords scored a run on on hit and a couple walks, but the inning ended with a pair of Haverford players on base.

Haverford closed the gap to 9-7 with two runs off Ryan Ellison in the seventh, but the Eagles again stretched the lead to 11-7 after McMenamin and Grato scored on a double play and a two-out single from Rossi.  

Ellison retired the first hitter he faced in the eight but gave up a single to right to end his day. Drew Shaw came on in relief. Shaw walked the first man he faced before getting the next hitter looking at a 3-2 pitch on the inside corner. It looked as thought the inning was going to be extended when  Nick Ott hit a slow roller toward third base on an 0-1 check swing.

Spall moved forward to play it at third, but at the last second realized that he would not be able to get Ott and let the ball roll foul. The heads-up play averted a bases-loaded situation and kept Shaw ahead in the count.

Shaw took advantage of the next 0-2 pitch and struck Ott out with a back-foot breaking ball to strand the runners and end the rally.

The drama was not over, as Haverford (21-7) threatened against Anthony Messina. Entering today, the Eastern closer had not allowed an earned run to score. That scoreless string after the Fords loaded the bases and picked up a two-RBI single through the right side from Alex Hudek. With the tying run  on first and nobody out, Messina started behind  2-0 Kane, but battled back to get the Haverford catcher swinging. The Eastern defense then finished the game as Messina turned a ground ball back to him into a 1-6-3 double play.

DeSarro is now two hits shy of the third spot and three hits out of second on the Eastern career list. The senior catcher is now one RBI from tying Davis Murray for the third spot on the list. 

The final anomaly of the game is that the only four extra-base hits of the game were the four Eastern home runs. 

The Eagles open a critical Freedom Conference Series at Misericordia on Friday afternoon. That series will conclude with a home doubleheader on Saturday.