ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Coming into today, Eastern University Baseball had not beaten Alvernia since 2000, while the two schools were league from the early days in the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference and Alvernia and Eastern were in the MAC Freedom together for one year before Alvernia moved to the Commonwealth. When Alvernia left, they were called the Crusdaers and had beaten Eastern 25 in a row. Eastern baseball used a ten-run seventh inning to break open a 3-3 tie and held on for a 13-5 win to earn the doubleheader split.
The big inning came without warning. The Eagles scored single runs in the second, fourth, and fifth innings, but saw a 3-1 lead disappear when the Golden Wolves scored twice in the top of the sixth to tie the game.
Liam Clarke slashed a single through the left side to start the inning and
Matt McHale, who had hit a towering home run over the scoreboard in the fifth inning took a walk to get the rally going.
Mickey Foytik pulled an outside pitch through the hole to give the Eagles a 4-3 lead and the rally had begun in earnest.
Joe Paradise drew a walk to load the bases and
Brad Clemens delivered the big hit of the frame with a solid single to left to drive in a pair.
As the inning progressed,
Shane Albertson and
Jake Jones both picked up RBI's on sacrifice flies and the Eagles took advantage of wildness from the Alvernia staff to walk in several hitters as well. The Eagles found the final run of the inning on a double steal from
Alex Tiburcio and
Matt McHale. Tiburcio, who had entered the game as a pinch runner for Foytik and stayed in the game to hit, went on first movement against a left-handed pitcher. As soon as the pick-off went, McHale darted for home. The throw to second was too late and McHale slid under the tag at the plate to cap the rally.
The Eagles, who had played good defense for much of the day, needed more of it in the eighth. Alvernia had already plated two and had runners at second and third against
John Beck with only one out. Alvernia center fielder Billy Douar ripped a line drive that looked to be headed for right-center, but Albertson timed his jump perfectly and beat the trail runner to the bag to end the rally.
Jacob Hayes worked around a one out double to close out the game on the mound.
"We did all three phases well today." Head Coach
Scott Renauro said. "We were catching barrels, pitched very well and fielded it well. There were a few shaky fielding plays that we need to clean up but other than those two we played clean and energized baseball today.
Nick Kosenske game us a great start today in game two. With such a different year with many variables, he has been put in multiple different situations. Today he started and gave us a chance to win by going late in the game. The hitters were a lot more confident today. We worked on staying balanced all week and catching balls later in the zone and today we did that in both games."
Kosenske went into the sixth before Beck came on to get out of one-out jam in the inning.
The Eagles fell behind on a two-run home run int he first inning of the opener and were never able to work into a lead. The Golden Wolves scored on a double-steal in the fourth inning, but the Eagles answered that run with a run on a Giffin Falco ground out in the bottom of the inning. Alvernia scored twice in the top of the fifth and McHale delivered a two-out two-RBI single in the bottom of the fifth to pull back to within a pair of runs at 5-3. Alvernia took advantage of two Eastern errors in the sixth to score the final three runs of the game and earn the 8-3 win. McHale had two of Eastern's four hits in the game.
The Eagles were slated to host Messiah tomorrow, but weather has pushed that contest back. The schedule page will have more information when it becomes known.
