FORT MYERS, Fla. – One can hope that the Edgewood College baseball team is using up their quota of painful losses early in the season. After two one-run losses in the final inning against Skidmore College on Tuesday, the Eagles are due to break through and start winning these close games soon. The Thoroughbreds withstood a seventh inning Eagle rally in game one to win 6-5, and then scored five runs in the final frame for an 8-7 win in game two.
Edgewood College (2-8) trailed 5-2 heading into the seventh inning of the day's opener. With one out, Andrew Lauritzen singled to begin the Eagles comeback. He would score all the way from first on double to right field by senior Jake Zadra. After a Skidmore College (2-3) pitching change, Zadra moved up to third on a groundout and the scored on a clutch single fromJared Raupp. Zack Creekmore came in to pinch hit and delivered an RBI single of his own to score Marc Ostrowski, who had walked, from second base with the tying run.
The celebration was short lived, however. Skidmore loaded the bases with one out on a hit batter, a bunt single and an intentional walk. From there Chris Lorenz delivered the game-winning single on a line drive to left field.
Alex Jaskulski led the Eagles with three hits in four official at-bats. Ryan O'Dell went 2-for-4 with a double, while Raupp was 2-for-3. Ostrowski provided two runs batted in with an RBI single in the fifth inning. Dan Hoppel took the loss after replacing Eagle starter Trevor Koehn in the fifth inning. Hoppel gave up three earned runs and four hits. Koehn went 4.1 innings and allowed two earned runs while striking out two batters.
If the first game was dentist appointment the second game was a root canal for the Eagles. Edgewood College trailed 3-1 when they tied the game in the fifth inning on an RBI triple from Zadra and a Ryan O'Dell sacrifice fly. The Eagles seemingly had control of the game after a three-run sixth inning gave them a 6-3 lead. Laurtizen drove home Nate Averill with a groundout and Zadra pushed across another run with an infield single. Lauritzen then scored on a Thoroughbred passed ball to complete the scoring.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Eagles were one out from victory with Skidmore runners on first and second when it all came apart. Following a passed ball Erik Watkins plated two runs with an RBI single. That was followed by a run scoring triple from Alex Barber to tie the game and a two-run home run from Jeff Spindel. In a matter of three batters, the Thoroughbreds had gone from a 6-3 deficit to an 8-6 lead.
The Eagles tried to answer in the bottom of the seventh inning. Eric Curtis stroked a triple to left field and Averill drove him home with a single up the middle to cut the Skidmore lead to 8-7. Averill advanced to second with two outs, but the Eagles couldn't bring home the tying run.
Ryan Busse providing 6.1 innings of strong work on the mound. Busse gave up five earned runs and struck one in a 100-pitch outing. Brock McGinn suffered the loss, pitching to the final five batters of the game. At the plate, Zadra went 3-for-4 with a triple and two runs batted in. Averill had two hits in four trips to the dish.
The Eagles will get two days off to recoup, before closing out their Florida schedule. Edgewood College will play Haverford College on Friday in a doubleheader and close their trip with a single game against Johns Hopkins University.