Four errors in the field and 10 men left on base doomed The University of Scranton baseball team as it dropped the final game of a three-game Landmark Conference series against Merchant Marine Academy, 8-4, on Sunday at Connell Park.
Scranton (9-9, 2-4 Landmark) committed four errors in the field, leading to three unearned runs early in the game. The Royals also had runners on base in eight of nine innings, but managed just four runs. With the win, the Mariners (10-6, 5-1 Landmark) swept the three-game series.
Merchant Marine jumped on top with two unearned runs in the top of the first, but the Royals answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI double by sophomore designated hitter Eric Pizzico (Royersford, Pa./Spring Ford).
The Mariners scored two more in the fifth, aided by a Scranton error, but the Royals matched those two runs in the bottom half of the inning with the help of a Mariners error and an RBI sac fly by freshman left fielder Ross Danzig (Clarks Green, Pa./Abington Heights/Blair Academy, N.J.).
The teams traded runs in the seventh before Merchant Marine Academy put the game away with three runs in the top of the ninth. The Mariners were led by sophomore third baseman Nicholas Kopacka (Saugus, Calif./Saugus), who had three hits, two RBIs and a run scored. Freshman catcher Jacob Wood (Richmond, Va./Benedictine) added two RBIs.
Freshman center fielder Michael Umerich (Clarks Summit, Pa./Abington Heights) led Scranton with two hits and two run scored, and Danzig added two hits and an RBI. Scranton also received an RBI from sophomore right fielder Michael Gaeta (Cranford, N.J./Cranford).
Scranton returns to the diamond on Wednesday, March 28, when it travels to Edwardsville, Pa. to face Wilkes University at 3:30 p.m.
--ROYALS--