SCRANTON, Pa. – The University of Scranton baseball team (10-3-1) held off a late inning rally from Ithaca in a 6-4 win over the Bombers (10-3) in non-conference action on Tuesday afternoon at Volpe Field in Scranton.
Scranton held a 5-1 lead in the middle innings before Ithaca rallied to cut the lead to 5-4, but senior Tyler Kirsten plated an insurance run with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to stretch the lead to 6-4.
This marked the first meeting between the two programs since Apr. 6, 1999.
Ithaca struck first as a two-out error in the top of the first brought home a run before Scranton answered with a two-out rally in the home half as sophomore Corey Zientek singled, advanced to second on a walk and scored on an RBI single from senior Jake Lisicky to knot things at one. The Royals took a 2-1 lead with a run in the fourth when back-to-back walks put two runners on and sophomore Jack Heineman came through with an RBI double.
In the top of the fifth with the Royals leading 2-1, Ithaca had runners at first and second with nobody out, but Lisicky made a sliding grab of a line drive down the first base line off the bat of Riley Brawdy and doubled both runners off to complete the triple play.
With the momentum of the triple play, Scranton immediately tacked on three runs in the bottom of the inning as Lisicky came through with an RBI triple and sophomore John Zarnowski added an RBI single in to make it a 5-1 game.
This was where the Bombers would rally as they plated three runs in the top of the sixth to cut the lead to 5-4, but sophomore lefty Mike Fox got Matt Fabian to fly to center and preserve the lead. Ithaca would get the tying run to third in the top of the seventh with two outs when freshman right-hander Kevin Keil punched out Louis Fabbo to end the inning.
Kirsten's afore-mentioned RBI single in the eighth came after junior Braden Breithaupt drew a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch.
Sophomore right-hander Thomas Plunkett got the win for the Royals as he allowed just the one unearned run on three hits to go along with two walks and a strikeout over five innings of work. Fox, who retired the lone batter he faced, Keil (2.0 IP, 2 BB, 2 K) and senior lefty Ryan Heiser all notched scoreless outings in relief.
Heiser worked around a one-out single in the ninth to notch his third save of the year.
Matt Chase surrendered five runs on seven hits while walking four and fanning five over 4 1/3 IP and was dealt the loss for the Bombers.
Four different players recorded multi-hit games in the victory for the Royals: Lisicky (2-5, 3B, 2 RBI, R), Kirsten (2-3, RBI, R), Zarnowski (2-3, RBI, R) and Zientek (2-5, 2 R).
The University of Scranton baseball team opens a Landmark Conference series versus Moravian with a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Volpe Field. First pitch of game one is slated for 12 p.m.
--ROYALS--