CARY, N.C. - Eastern Baseball was swept by William Peace University on Monday afternoon by scores of 5-4 and 8-7. In both games, the Eagles rallied back but fell short as the Pacers managed to escape with the two victories.
"Those are two really tough losses," said Head Coach
Jed Morris. "We came back in both games and were right there in the end."
In game one of the doubleheader Eastern (0-2) fell behind 4-1 after taking a 1-0 lead. William Peace (6-7) tied the game in the bottom of the fourth before tacking on three more runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Trailing by three and down to their final three outs, the Eagles rallied back in the top of the seventh to the tie game at 4-4.
Joseph De Los Santos led off the inning getting hit by a pitch and then advanced to second base on a passed ball.
Shane Albertson and
Nick Centeno then both drew walks to load the bases with no outs.
Jordan Laboy then doubled to left field scoring two runs to pull the Eagles within one at 4-3.
Angelo Kelly stepped up to the plate and ripped a single up the middle to tie the game at four apiece just moments later. The Eagles were unable to score any other runners and left one runner on base by the time the third out was recorded.
The Pacers, however, came back and answered the rally in the bottom of the seventh. A leadoff single followed by a sacrifice bunt advanced the go-ahead run to second. The following batter belted a double to right field to score the winning run and give William Peace the 5-4 walk-off win.
"It's unfortunate because we did some good things to comeback and make a game out of it," continued Morris. "Just wound up on the losing end today but I am proud of the way we battled."
Laboy finished the game going 1-2 and hitting two RBI's while Kelly finished 2-4 with an RBI.
In game two Eastern once again fell behind after an initial 1-1 tie. A four-run second inning by the Pacers extended the lead to 5-1. The Eagles once again came back to tie the game, scoring four runs in the next two innings.
In the third inning,
Connor Beaudoin singled scoring Kelly on the play to make the score 5-2. In the fourth inning, De Los Santos led off with a single and advanced to second off a
Peter Crawford groundout.
Kyle Daddario then singled to score De Los Santos and pull the Eagles within two. An Albertson single to right field followed by a fielder's choice plated back-to-back runs to tie the game at 5-5.
William Peace scored three more runs in the bottom half of the inning to extend its lead to three, 8-5. It looked like the Pacers would cruise to the victory from that point on but once again the Eagles came back and made a game of it.
After Kelly and Centeno each singled to end up on first and third
Andrew Boykin doubled scoring Kelly and pulling Eastern within two, 8-6. Crawford grounded out to second but plated a run in the process to make it a one run game. However, Laboy flew out to left for the final out as Eastern fell just short of the comeback at 8-7.
"To come back not once but twice in one game is a great sight," concluded Morris. "We just need to learn from this experience and move on to tomorrow. We have a long season ahead of us and if we think about the things we did today and execute that wat throughout the season we can be a very good team."
Kelly went 1-3, scoring twice with an RBI as well. Boykin finished the game 2-4, with an RBI, and scoring one run.
Eastern travels to Methodist University on March 1st for a 4 pm game.
