CHESTER, Pa.– In a normal year, Eastern Baseball will play 8-to-10 non-league games against a variety of opponents before starting into conference action. This has not been a normal year. In that, the Eagles have only four non-league games heading into their first season in the MAC Commonealth, and because of the schedule, those games have been against MAC Commonwealth opponents. The Eagles dropped a pair of closely contested games to the Widener University Pride (3-1) this afternoon.
The Eagles had the tying runs on base with two outs in the top of the ninth in a 7-5 loss in the opener and led 3-2 heading to the bottom of the eighth before falling 9-4 in the nightcap.
The plan for the day was to give nine pitchers designated innings each in the twin-bill.
Mickey Foytik allowed two earned runs and struck out a pair starting the opener.
Nick Kosenske worked a scoreless fourth before the Pride plated four runs on four hits and an error in the fifth. Three of the four hits in the inning were ground balls or softly hit line drives. The Pride picked up their seventh run of the game on an error on a windblown fly ball.
Shane Albertson came on two pitch two scoreless innings to keep the Eagles in the game.
Though the Eagles scored five runs in the contest, they only had one two-out RBI, a booming double to left-center by
Matt McHale in the fourth inning. Even with the offense struggling, the Eagles had a chance in the ninth.
Connor Schilling started the rally with a two-out ground ball base hit to left. Albertson then laid down a perfect bunt to put the tying run on base. The Pride brought in their left-handed closer and earned the final out.
With
Tyler Bennett on the hill in game two, the Eagles built a 3-0 lead. Albertson, Dave Hunsberger, and
Logan Klember each had RBI singles. Bennett allowed only one hit and struck out four in his four innings. He left witha. 2-0 lead.
Sean Cottrell gave up two runs in two and two thirds innings before
Steve Sattanino came on to retire the final Widener batter in the seventh.
Eastern had a chance to answer with two runners in scoring position in the top of the eighth, a two-out hit did not happen and the Eagles clung to a 3-2 lead. Widener executed on offense and took advantage of miscues to score seven times in the bottom of the eighth. A
Joe Paradise home run in the ninth was not enough to make a difference.
"Unfortunately, we couldn't put the whole game together today," Head Coach
Scott Renauro said, "We played solid 7 innings in the second game, but then the wheels started to come off. Most of the day besides a few innings we executed our pitches and made them hit. We had innings where we either lost focus on the mound or in the field. We know we cannot give good teams extra outs or let their hitters into good counts. Joseph Paradise and
Logan Klember put good swings on balls. As a whole though, we did not execute with runners in scoring position and struck out too many times. This was another good tune up for conference play next weekend."
The Eagles start into MAC Commonwealth play at Lebanon Valley on Saturday. Eastern and Widener will play their MAC Commonwealth games on the weekend of March 27th and 28th.
