Moosic, Pa. – Trailing 4-2 and down to their last out, Caleb Lang hit a three-run home to lift Cairn University to 5-4 victory over Keystone College in a Colonial States Athletic Conference baseball game played at PNC Field as part of the 4th Annual Bill Howerton Strikeout Cancer Weekend. The Highlanders improve to 11-10 on the season and 1-6 in conference play while dropping the Giants to 15-5 overall and 4-2 in the CSAC.
Keystone took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Alex Herceg (Jackson, NJ/Jackson Memorial) legged out an infield single that brought home Louis Reyes (Port St. Lucie, FL/Treasure Coast) from third. The Giants doubled their lead in the second inning when Reyes lifted a single to right field and Julian Lanfranco (Brooklyn, NY/Xaverian) raced around to score from first after the Highlanders' left fielder misplayed the ball.
Cairn cut their deficit in half in the top of the third inning when Lang hit a single that plated Joey Nieves-Markee. Herceg nearly restored Keystone's two-run edge with two outs in the home third, but Cairn's Nieves-Markee robbed the senior of a home run with a great leaping catch at the left-field wall and the Highlanders tied the game in the visitor's fifth inning on a RBI base hit off the bat of Daniel Morales.
Keystone took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning when Tony Hunter II (Atlanta, GA/South Effingham) singled to right center to bring home Nate Ross (Albuquerque, NM/La Cueva) and would hold a 4-2 advantage heading into the ninth inning after Hunter scored on a fielding error by the Highlanders on a ball hit by Lanfranco.
Down to their final three outs, Cairn put a pair of runners on with a hit batsman and a walk while the Giants got a pair of fielder's choices to move to within an out of pulling out the win, but Lang had other ideas when he launched a three-run shot over the fence in left-center to give the Highlanders a 5-4 edge.
Keystone put the tying run in scoring position and the winning run on base in the bottom of the ninth inning, but was unable to push a run across.
Cairn starting pitcher John Burlaga yielded two runs on seven hits while striking out three batters in 6.1 innings of work. Matt Trotman picked up the win despite allowing two runs in 1.2 innings of work while Daniel Morales picked up the save with a scoreless ninth inning that included a game-ending strikeout.
Lang went 2-4 with four RBIs to power the Highlanders while Nieves-Markee scored three runs in the win.
Billy Nelson (Moscow, PA/North Pocono) started on the mound for Keystone an took a no-decision after allowing one earned run on four hits to go along with five strikeouts in six innings. Nick Spinella (Bethel, CT/Bethel) recorded the first out of the sixth inning and issued a walk before handing the ball off to Danny O'Neill (Lake Hiawatha, NJ/St. Mary's Rutherford) who did not allow a hit and picked up one strikeout in 1.2 innings on the hill. Yeison Andujar (Carolina, PR/Programa Educativo Alcance) suffered the loss after yielding Lang's game-winning home run.
Reyes extended his hitting streaking to 21 games with a pair of hits while Brandon Eady (Bowie, MD/DeMatha Catholic) also had two hits for the Giants, who outhit Cairn by a 10-6 margin.
Keystone returns to the diamond on Wednesday with a non-conference game against Drew University starting at 3:00 p.m. at Christy Mathewson Field in La Plume.