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| Freshman designated hitter Jarrar Grossguth drove in a pair of runs to lead No.3-seeded Rhode Island College past No. 6-seeded Castleton, 8-3, in the opening round of the Little East Baseball Championship at Southern Maine's Ed Flaherty Field on Thursday afternoon. Rhode Island fell 2-1 to Southern Maine in the Anchorman's second game of the day. Rhode island athletics photo |
The No. 2 Penn State Behrend advanced to the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Championships with a pair of wins over No. 3 Mt. Aloysius on Thursday. The Lions won 5-1 and 11-3. Game on starter Thomas Zbezinski (Gibsonia, PA/Pine Richland) got his sixth win of the season, going the distance and throwing a career-high 11 strikeouts. Harger led the Lions with a perfect 5-for-5 performance in game two, including four runs and two RBIs.
Facing elimination twice, Albion College erased a pair of late six-run deficits to sweep in dramatic fashion and advance to the final day of the MIAA Tournament in Pod B. The Brits forced extras in game one to defeat Trine, 9-6. Albion followed with another comeback victory in the nightcap, eliminating Calvin by an 8-6 margin. Drew Olszewski was phenomenal for the Britons both at the dish and on the mound. The senior was 6 for 11 on the day. He also fired seven shutout innings in relief, allowing three hits and striking out eight in game one and came in to pick up the save in game two. Albion will play Hope tomorrow at noon. Albion must win twice to move on to next week's MIAA Championship series. Hope defeated Calvin 6-1 to advance to the the Pod championshiop game.
Regionally ranked Texas-Dallas is now just one win away from its second-ever conference title as the Comets sailed to a 12-7 win over East Texas Baptist Thursday afternoon in the Gold Bracket of the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament Series. Ramon Garza blasted his school-record third grand slam of the spring in the bottom of the 8th to help stretch the Comets' lead to eight runs at the time before ETBU plated three runs in the top of the 9th. Now 28-10 on the season, the top-seeded Comets will try lock down the ASC title at 2 p.m. in game two of the ASC's Gold Bracket.
Willamette University scored four runs in the top of the 12th inning to break a 2-2 tie and the Bearcats went on to down Pacific Lutheran University, 6-2, in the first round of the 2021 Northwest Conference Baseball Tournament at Chuck Bafaro Stadium on Thursday. In the other first round game, Jordan Hara's RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth lifted Pacific to a 5-4 win over visiting Whitworth. The Bearcats will take on Pacific in the winner's bracket game on Friday. Pacific Lutheran and Whitworth will start Friday's schedule with an elimination game at 10 a.m. in the opening game of the Northwest Conference baseball tournament on Thursday afternoon at Chuck Bafaro Stadium.
Playing at home as the No. 1 tournament seed for the first time in seven years, Eastern Connecticut State University erased a five-run deficit by scoring all of its runs in its final three at-bats to post a 7-6 victory over three-time defending tournament champion UMass-Boston on the opening day of the 2021 Little East Conference Baseball Tournament Thursday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium. The win gives Eastern its 31st 30-win season, first since 2014. Now 20-2 at home and a winner of nine straight, Eastern (30-4) plays its second game in the three-team double-elimination tournament Saturday at 4:30 p.m. against the winner of Saturday’s 1 p.m. elimination game between No. 5 seed UMass Boston (10-8) and No. 4 seed University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (11-13). UMass Boston edged UMass Dartmouth, 2-1 in ten innings in Thursday’s first game before facing Eastern an hour later.
Senior Ben Lambert survived a ninth-inning scare to pitch a complete game as the second-seeded University of Southern Maine Huskies held off the third-seeded Rhode Island College Anchormen, 2-1, in the first day of play of the Little East Conference Baseball Tournament Thursday afternoon at Ed Flaherty Field. In the earlier game, Rhode Island College sent 10 men to the plate in the sixth inning to score six times and went on to defeat sixth seeded Castleton University 8-3. Lambert picked up his sixth win of the season allowing the Anchormen an unearned run on five hits and three walks while striking out six. He had to survive the ninth inning as the first three Anchormen reached base on an infield error, a walk and an RBI single by freshman Cal Parrillo that made it 2-1.
Spalding University won their opening game of the SLIAC Tournament, 13-0, over the Blackburn Beavers to improve to 27-13 on the season. With the win, the Eagles move on to play the winner of #3 Fontbonne vs. #6 Iowa Wesleyan. First pitch is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET at CarShield Field in O'Fallon, Mo. Peyton Hood (7-3) earned his seventh win of the season. The senior had Beaver batters off balance all day limiting them to 4 hits, while striking out 5 in 9.0 inning complete game performance. JT Johnson led the Eagles at the plate going 3-for-5 with three RBIs and a home run. In addition, Dryden Schroeder and Mitchell Langley each added a pair of hits and two RBIs. In other games, top seeded Webster got past Eureka 5-2 in their quarterfinals meeting, plating five runs on six timely hits as Eureka pitcher Greg Cluskey kept the explosive Gorlok offense at bay for the majority of the day. Fontbonne defeated Iowa Wesleyan 14-0 as the league's top offense put up runs in six of eight innings they batted in. All the scoring that was needed for Westminster came in the bottom of the first off the bat of Logan Thompson as the Blue Jays defeated Greenville 8-2. Westminster put up five runs in the first two innings and never looked back as pitcher Andrew Boessen scattered nine Panther hits during his 8 innings of work.
The Midwest Conference North Division title race will come down to the final regular season games this Saturday after Beloit split with the University of Chicago Thursday afternoon. The Buccaneers boast a 17-3 record in the MWC while the Maroons are 14-4 after the games in Beloit Thursday. The two squads will faceoff in the final set of regular season games Saturday in Chicago beginning at noon with the Bucs needing to win one game to secure the north division title. Thursday's doubleheader was a tale of two very different games for the Bucs. Beloit's offense took a while to get going while the defense tallied three uncharacteristic miscues as the Maroons plated 15 runs on 19 hits to win the opener 15-8. Even more uncharacteristic, the Buc offense left 17 on base in the opener, many in the opening frames before the offense came to life. Starting where the offense left off, the Bucs jumped out to a big lead and notched a clean game on defense en route to a 13-3, eight inning, victory in the nightcap.
Tyler Horvat tossed 7.0 strong innings and crushed a three-run home run as the No. 2 ranked Washington & Jefferson College beat Saint Vincent by a 7-1 score in the opening game of the 2021 Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament Thursday afternoon at Ross Memorial Park. W&J improved its record to 34-1. The Presidents advance in the winners bracket and will host Grove City at 12 p.m. in Game C of the PAC Tournament on Friday. Grove City beat Franciscan by a 9-3 score in Friday's second game.
Behind seven strong innings from sophomore Zach Silfies and junior Joey Thomas's hot bat, the three-seed Elizabethtown College downed fifth seed Juniata 9-4 in game one of the Landmark Conference Championship Thursday afternoon. With the win, the Blue Jays improve to 14-9 on the season while the Eagles fall to 12-13 overall. Thomas finished the day 3-3 with a game-high three RBI and a double. Senior JT Thompson was 2-4 with a double, three runs scored, and two RBI. Sophomore Ben Watson and senior Arley Shepherd had two RBI as well. Juniata was led by sophomore Dakota Snyder who registered a double and two runs scored.
The University of Dubuque wrapped up the 2021 regular season in style, beating Loras 4-1 to take three out of four games from the Duhawks. The score would hold at 4-1 but the Duhawks would have one last rally in them, loading the bases with just one out in the ninth. Edwards Rosas would come in and put out the fire with a strike out and fly out to earn his first save of the season. Anthony Scanlon battled for six innings on the mound and buckled down when needed to give up just one run on five hits for his second win of 2021.
Ripon's sent fans home happy on Senior Day Thursday afternoon, as the Red Hawks won their final home game of the 2021 season in walk-off fashion. Nick Tenny delivered a no-out single in the bottom of the ninth to score Senior Andrew Betcher from third base, giving Ripon a 7-6 victory. That came on the heels of a 9-7 loss to Lawrence in which the Vikings broke a tie in the top of the ninth inning.
Senior Tyler Tennyson pitched his second straight complete-game shutout in Thursday afternoon's opener against Nebraska Wesleyan and also launched a three-run home run in the first inning as the Beavers took game one by the score of 5-0. The Prairie Wolves jumped all over BVU early in game two and rolled to a 15-1 (7 inn.) triump to earn the split. Tennyson allowed just four hits and struck out six over seven innings of work to improve his season record to 7-2 and lower his ERA to 2.34 which sits fifth in the American Rivers Conference. He now leads the league in innings pitched with 69.2. He helped out his own cause in the opening inning by giving his team a 3-0 advantage after sending his team-leading third home run of the year inside the foul pole in left.
Gwynedd Mercy picked up a big 11-2 victory over Neumann on Thursday in an Atlantic East Conference matchup to help bolster their postseason fate. The two teams will play tomorrow in a doubleheader at Neumann with the Griffins needing to win one game to clinch the fourth playoff seed and host a play-in game on Tuesday against Wesley. For the game, GMercyU used big innings in the third and seventh to notch their third win in their last four games. Starter Mitchell Bramsway yielded just one run on six hits in seven innings of work to give the freshman his first collegiate victory. Bobby Heck, Billy Collins, and Noah Andress each had two hits while Frank Ebling cranked a two-run homer in the fifth and Brett Swire keyed that four-run seventh with a bases-loaded clearing double. Swire walked three times while Ebling scored three times.
In need of a victory to secure the second seed in the upcoming Atlantic East Tournament, Immaculata took to the road on Thursday afternoon for a doubleheader vs Atlantic East rival Cabrini. Immaculata got the victory it was looking for in the first game of the afternoon as Immaculata prevailed in a high-scoring affair by a final of 29-13 before dropping the nightcap by a final of 22-8. In addition to Joey Wright setting the single-game RBI record with nine RBIs, Immaculata also broke its program record for runs scored in this victory, surpassing the previous high of 28, which was also set on the road at Cabrini during the 2019 season. The bats were much quieter for Immaculata as Cabrini scored 22 on Immaculata. Justin Henry had six RBIs on a 5-for-6 game.
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