ST. DAVIDS, Pa. – Eastern Baseball's rally fell just short against visiting Wesley College Monday afternoon as the Eagles lost 7-6. Eastern loaded the bases in the final three innings but just couldn't generate enough offense to overcome the deficit.

"This loss really hurts because old issues I thought we had corrected crept back up today and hurt us," said Head Coach Jed Morris. "We can't make those mistakes and expect to win."

The Wolverines (18-12) jumped out to an early lead scoring four runs in the second inning. After the leadoff batter for Wesley was hit by a pitch back-to-back doubles plated the opening two runs of the game. A single and an error later in the inning scored another run for the Wolverines stretching the lead to 3-0.

Eastern (10-11-2) had a chance to cut the deficit to three in the bottom half of the second inning. After Andrew Boykin had doubled earlier in the inning, he was thrown out at home trying to score on a Shane Albertson single to center field for the final out of the inning. The Eagles wouldn't have another baserunner until the sixth inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Eastern started to chip away at the Wesley lead. Timmy Gorton doubled scoring Angelo Kelly to make the score 4-1. Gorton reached third on a passed ball and scored two batters later on a Joseph De Los Santos sacrifice fly to left field to cut the deficit to just two.

The Wolverines added three more runs in the seventh and eighth innings to make the score 7-2. The Eagles did manage to load the bases in the bottom of the seventh inning but failed to convert on the opportunity. In the bottom of the eighth Eastern once again loaded the bases and this time scored twice to trim Wesley's lead to just three. Joe Grato earned a walk to lead off the inning followed by back-to-back singles from De Los Santos and Boykin loading the bases for Andrew Check. A walk by Check plated Grato and a single the very next at-bat by Albertson scored De Los Santos cutting the deficit to three, 7-4. However, three straight outs followed, and the teams headed to the final inning of play.

"Offensively we did some good things today," continued Morris. "We cannot continually rely on our offense to get us out of tough situations, though, and I think we fell into that mentality. At some point, we have to make the plays to put us in a position to win earlier in the game instead of just banking on that one big inning."

In the bottom of the ninth for third straight inning in a row, the Eagles loaded the bases and looked to steal a dramatic come from behind win. Grato belted a solo home run to center field to trim the lead to just two, 7-5. A De Los Santos ground-rule double followed by a Boykin single gave Eastern runners on first and third with one out. After Check had drawn a walk to load the bases, Albertson flew out to center scoring De Los Santos on a sacrifice fly to make it a one-run game. A Strikeout, however, would end the game and the comeback.

Overall Eastern left eight runners on base in the final three innings of the game. De Los Santos finished the day going 3-4, scoring two runs and recording an RBI while Albertson finished the day 2-3 with two RBI's.

"It just hurts because we were right there in the end and had we done a few of a the very little but important things right that game is different," concluded Morris. "We have a tough opponent in Widener on Wednesday, and we have to be ready to go for that one."   

Eastern travels to Widener on April 13th for a 3:30 pm start.