ASTON, Pa.– Weather kept the Eastern University baseball team off the field for 11 days. The break did not work to the team's advantage as the Eagles managed only five singles in a neutral-site game hosted by Haverford College at the Maplezone Sports Complex in Aston, Pa. The Fords scored in five different innings to earn the 8-2 win.
With five league games scheduled for the weekend, the Eastern Coaching staff came into the day planning to use multiple pitchers in short stretches.
Ryan Kehr gave up a first-inning run before escaping a two-on jam with a strike out and a pop up to second. Kehr was very efficient in the second with four ground balls from the four batters he faced.
Tommy Strazza came on in relief and gave up a run in the third before escaping a bases-loaded jam with a strikeout.
The Eagles loaded the bases with no one out in the fourth, but
Freddy Yahn hit a sharp ground ball to the left side that the Fords turned into a double-play.
Brady DiGiacomo, who had singled to start the inning, scored on the play, but the rally lost its momentum with the double-play.
Strazza retired the first two hitters he faced in the fourth, but the Fords strung together three straight hits to score two runs. The Fords also scored two runs off
Josh Freed in the fifth and
Joe Clancy in the sixth.
Justin Fredericks came on with runners on and two outs in the sixth and struck out the first batter he faced to get the Eagles out of a jam. He retired all three batters he faced in the seventh.
Matt Bunjo pitched a scoreless eighth. In that inning, the Eastern defense recovered from a one-out error on a pop-up on the mound to make three good plays to close out the inning.
Shane Albertson ranged into foul ground in short right field to grab a pop-up just short of the fence. Zack Belansek made a diving stop at short to keep a ball in the infield.
Britton Lawrence smothered a hard ground ball and beat the runner at third to end the inning.
Joe DeLosSantos reached on a two-out error in the ninth.
Andrew Boykin then battled back from an 0-2 count to earn a walk in his only at-bat of the afternoon before
Jordan Laboy delivered a pinch-hit single to left to plate DeLosSantos.
The Eagles will have an unexpected day off tomorrow as the Cairn game is postponed to a yet-to-be-determined date. There will be plenty of baseball in St. Davids this weekend. Eastern will host five games in three days at The Yard. The Eagles will bat first in both games of Saturday's doubleheader against Manhattanville.
