March 3, 2020

York and others breaks out bats to get Tuesday wins

More news about: Alvernia | Eastern | Lebanon Valley | Moravian | York (Pa.)
 
Aurora moved into the D3baseball.com Top 25 at No. 21 and
then took to the field against Fontbonne on the 2020 trip to
central Florida for the Russmatt Invitational. The Spartans
celebrated with a crushing 17-6 victory over the Griffins.
Aurora athletics photo by Steve Woltmann

York College baseball team picked up their first win of the year as they out-slugged Eastern Mennonite on Tuesday afternoon at the Ripken Complex in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The Spartans began the season with an 0-3 trip to the University of Lynchburg. The game is the first of four on the South Carolina stretch of their 2020 spring trip.

Overcoming an early deficit, the 13th-ranked North Central came back to defeat Saint John's, 7-5 at North Charlotte Regional Park, improving to 5-0 on the young season. Rob Marinec reached base four times on the afternoon to pace the offense, finishing 2-for-3 from the plate with a walk and hit by pitch, while also driving in a pair, moving him into 10th-place in program history with 114 career runs batted in. Michael Stoltz added a 2-for-4 performance from the nine hole, scoring twice while driving in one. With his hit by pitch in the first inning, John Carmody becomes the all-time leader in program history with 32 in his career.

First-year transfer senior righty Josh Vincent pitched a one-hit shutout over the first four innings and two relievers combined on a one-hitter as Eastern Connecticut State University opened its 2020 season with a 10-1 non-conference win over Nichols at Granger Field on the campus of Clark University. Vincent (1-0), a transfer from the Division II level, allowed only a one-out single to center in his first start at Eastern, while second-year junior righty transfer Zach Player and freshman righty Nathan Furino combined on a one-hitter with five strikeouts over the final five innings. Six of Eastern's runs were unearned and the Warriors scored five times after walking. The meeting was the first between the programs in 22 years. Eastern improved to 26-1 in the all-time series.

Eastern (4-2) opened the spring break trip with a pair of wild wins over the John Jay Bloodhounds (1-7). The Eagles scored 35 runs in the two games but still needed an heroic RBI triple in the bottom of the eight and a pair of wild pitches to win in a walk-off in the the bottom of the ninth in game two. "Our approaches early and start to the game from Matt Poma were excellent. With the big lead, we became to complacent. When the game got close, we had to execute sac bunts.We have been spending all winter working on those situations and that work paid off. Steve Sattanino came in and did a good job. Unfortunately the stat line doesn't show how well he threw with the fielding miscues. We will have to clean up our game entirely moving forward."

Keyed by senior Riley Stesiak's two-run triple, Albion scored six runs in the seventh inning and, for the third straight game, came from behind to win -- this time 13-7 over Waynesburg University in Winter Haven, Fla. In its first three games, all late-inning victories, Albion has scored 10 runs in the seventh inning and nine in the eighth. And so it was again Tuesday when, trailing Waynesburg 7-6 heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Britons erupted for their rally. Junior Kellan Huang got it started by driving in a run with a bases loaded walk. Junior Andrew Arszulowski then deivered a run-scoring single and junior Alex Cull hit an RBI sacrifice fly. Stesiak followed wth a two-run triple and the sixth run scored on a Waynesburg throwing error. Cull also added an RBI single in the eighth.

Wells got a 10-run second inning in their home opener that propelled the team to an 18-3 victory over visiting Clarks Summit. A.J. Nesci collected a pair of hits on the day with his second being his 100th in a Wells uniform. He and Tanner Dunkel each had two hits and four of the team's dozen with single hits coming from Luke Eitner, Dylan Nolan, Derek Shea, Mark Yorkey, Cole Murray, Daniel Santiago, Joe Horne and Kevin Spaeth. On the mound, Jared Strait recorded a school-record 13 strikeouts in six innings of shutout work. Strait surpassed Brandon Shirley's 10 strikeouts against Elmira in March 2017. The Express finished the seventh inning with an 18-0 lead before the Defenders scored once in the eighth inning and added a pair in the ninth. Of Wells' 18 runs, Nolan led the team with three. Shea and Dunkel registered a team-high pair of RBIs in the first win for Wells College's first-year head coach Ryan Stevens.

Zach Parr posted a career day, going 4-for-6 with
three RBI and a double and a triple, leading the
Houghton Highlanders past the Drew Mustangs, 14-11.
Houghton pounded out 11 hits and took advantage of
17 walks and two hit batters, reaching base a total of
30 times on the day.
Houghton athletics photo

Trine claimed its fourth-straight victory with a 10-3 win against Widener as part of the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational at the Lake Myrtle Complex in Auburndale, Fla. Junior Drew Bradford made his second start on the mound of the season and got his first win of the year (1-1 overall) after pitching five-and-a-third innings and gave up two runs, one earned, on three hits and struck out five batters. Trine was led in hits by Jake Conley who finished three-of-four with a run scored and two RBI. Jake Roddy and Shayne Devine also recorded multi-hit games with Roddy going two-of-three in addition to a run scored and RBI. Devine also finished two-of-three at the plate and had a pair of runs scored and RBI.

In just one game today the John Carroll Blue Streaks came out the victors after a strong all-around team performance. "It was an overall good game," said coach Bobby Bell, "Our defense, pitching, and timely hitting helped us win the game and we can take this momentum into our series against St. John Fisher over the weekend." Jon Ambro was given the ball to start the game for his first career collegiate start. He was stellar, pitching five innings and allowing just one run. Ambro allowed just four hits while striking out three and giving his bats a chance to build up a lead. Sam Heaton was able to go 4-4 at the plate and score a pair of runs while Joe Charpentier and David Ferguson both finished with three hits.

Belhaven battled from behind to win 12-11 in extra innings at Millsaps. The win moved the Blazers to 6-7 on the season and was their fourth victory in a row following a three-game sweep of Mary Hardin-Baylor at the weekend. Austin Howland got the start on the mound for the Blazers and threw three innings allowing five runs on five hits and striking out seven batters. Justin Milam picked up the victory in relief throwing three and a third innings allowing an unearned run on two hits. At the plate, Nick Lucido led the way going 4-5 with a home run, five runs scored and three RBIs. Lucido also racked up three stolen bases on the day. Trip Benson finished the game 2-5 with a pair of doubles including the one that drove in the game winning run.

Moravian scored in eight of nine innings as the Greyhounds raced out to a 24-7 win over St. Elizabeth at the Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The Greyhounds, who scored in double digits for the third time this season, had 23 hits in the contest with senior center fielder Carmine Palummo going 4-for-5 with three runs, two RBIs and a triple. Junior right fielder Thomas Philipps went 3-for-3 as he tied the school record with three doubles to go along with four runs and four RBIs. Freshman third baseman Derek Holmes was 2-for-3 with two RBIs while senior left fielder Ian Csencsits went 2-for-3 with four runs and an RBI. Sophomore designated hitter AJ Brosious was 2-for-4 with four RBIs and a home run while sophomore third baseman David Bertolotti, freshman shortstop Mason Fisher and freshman catcher Nick Montone were all 2-for-4.

The final trip to U.S. Bank Stadium for Bethel ended with a
bang as the Royals cruised past UW-Platteville by scores
of 12-1 and 8-1.
Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

Lebanon Valley stayed perfect in Florida after rapping out 17 hits in a 21-9 rout of Muskingum in non-conference baseall action. The Flying Dutchmen moved to 4-0 in Florida while the Fighting Muskies fell to 2-2. Making his first collegiate start and appearance, Tommy Moore Jr. was solid on the bump for LVC and tossed four innings, allowing just one earned run. Muskingum scored five runs in the fifth, but it wasn't nearly enough, as the Dutchmen scored six more times in the top of the sixth and held on comfortably at 21-9. Chris DeClerico went 4-for-5 at the plate with three runs scored and a pair of RBI.

Nebraska Wesleyan split a doubleheader against Westminster (Mo.) in games that were played in Topeka, Kansas starting at 10 am.  Westminster won game one 6-5, then the Prairie Wolves came back to win big 10-2 in the second game.

The Wartburg Knights improved to 5-1 on the season on Monday morning, defeating Neumann 10-9 in 10 innings. Ethan Hayes came up clutch with his third RBI of the game in the 10th inning, scoring Jarod Harris off a single to right center to grant the Orange & Black the walk-off victory. Tony Rex, who pitched 5.2 innings in relief of Brady Kraus, earned the win on the mound while allowing two runs with three strikeouts. A trio of Knights recorded three-hit games; JoJo McNair, Parker Ridge, and Hayes.

Thiel improved to 3-0 on the season after defeating the Otterbein Cardinals 16-4 during play in the Gene Cusic Classic in Fort Myers, Fla.  A day after scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to earn a 9-8 win over the Cardinals, the Tomcats scattered 21 hits. Jamin Wentling led the Tomcats at the dish with four hits, one of which was a double. He recorded two RBIs and scored a pair of runs. Joe Mott and Dylan Gurski both recorded three hits.