SALISBURY, Md. – Junior Bill Root scored the go-ahead run from second base in the bottom of the eighth inning on a throwing error as the No. 6 Salisbury University baseball team escaped with a 2-1 win over York (Pa.) College at the SU Baseball Field on Sunday.
With two outs and runners on first and second, junior Ken O'Neill hit a groundball that third baseman Sean Shakan fielded cleanly but fired wildly to second, allowing Root to score the winning run.
Sophomore left-hander Dan Fein (4-0) earned the win with five innings of lights-out relief for righty classmate Dylan Anderson. Fein gave up just a hit and a walk with a career-high eight strikeouts. The Southbury, Conn., native, who allowed an inherited runner from Anderson in the fifth to score, has yet to surrender a run of his own in 21 innings this season.
The win for Salisbury (13-2, 3-0 CAC) is its seventh consecutive and fifth this week. The Sea Gulls outscored the opposition, 43-7, in beating fourth-ranked Christopher Newport University, Albertus Magnus College and York.
Spartans junior lefty Brad Wenzel (1-1) kept the SU offense at bay, tossing a complete-game, four-hitter. He allowed one earned run and walked six, but fanned eight to allow York (5-7, 0-3 CAC) to hang around.
Salisbury broke on top in the bottom of the third when Nick Gentry drew a one-out walk and stole his team-leading 11th base of the season. Quinn Griffith followed a with a base hit through the left side and Evan Graci lifted a fly ball to right field deep enough to score Gentry from third for a 1-0 lead.
Anderson, who allowed five hits and two walks with one strikeout in four innings, made the advantage stand up into the fifth. He walked Jimmy King, the Spartans' leadoff hitter in the frame, on four pitches before giving way to Fein. After King was erased on a fielder's choice by Dustin Worthman, who moved to second on a wild pitch, Andrew Hershey's single up the middle tied the game.
That's the way it stayed for three innings. Root, who moved into sole possession of fifth place all-time in steals at Salisbury in the first with the 56th of his career, led off the decisive eighth with a bunt single. Gentry sacrificed him to second and, with one out, York chose to intentionally walk Griffith, setting up a double-play possibility.
Wenzel, however, got Graci swinging for the second out, but the Sea Gulls took the lead O'Neill's grounder.
Bobby Sanzone, Kyle Hayman, Root and Griffith picked up SU's four hits while Colbe Herr was 2-for-4 to lead York.
Salisbury hosts the Apprentice School on Wednesday at 2 p.m., before a seven-game road trip.