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| In the opening round of play at the CCS conference tournament, Piedmont secured a victory to advance in the winner's bracket with a 6-4 win over Huntingdon. The Lions were in control early with a 3-0 lead after the first two innings and Zeke Swartz was dealing from the mound. It was not until the seventh inning, his final inning of work, that the Hawks were able to get a hit off him. Swartz surrendered a pair of hits in the frame and had two walks and a hit by pitch before Head Coach Justin Scali went to the bullpen. The Lions were leading 6-0 entering the bottom of the seventh, but the Hawks put the pressure on scoring four runs on two hits. Piedmont athletics photo by Dale Zanine |
Webster was back in action this evening when they traveled to Greenville, Illinois, to take on the Greenville Panthers for the first game of a three-game series. The Gorloks, who ranked fourth in the first NCAA Division III Baseball Regional Rankings of the season, defeated the Panthers by a final score of 14-8 to improve their record to 26-12 on the season and 16-3 in the SLIAC. With the loss, the Panthers drop to 18-18 on the year and 11-8 in the conference. The Panthers would cut the lead to 9-7 in the bottom of the seventh, but a three-run homerun from R.J. LaRocco (5) in the top of the eighth would extend Webster's lead back out to five late in the game. Greenville would bring one final run across in the bottom of the eighth, but Webster would pick up two runs in the top of the ninth to solidify their 10th straight win. Jordan Smevoll was the starting pitcher for the Gorloks as he allowed three hits and two earned runs while striking out two in 3.2 innings. Alek Elges (6-2), Caleb Zbrozek, and Joel Arsenault pitched in relief as the three combined to allow seven hits and five earned runs while striking out five in 5.1 innings pitched.
In his first appearance in over two weeks, sophomore lefty Nicholas Furino got two strikeouts to strand the tying and go-ahead runs in the sixth inning and No. 13 Eastern Connecticut State University closed out its home season with a 3-2 victory over Western New England University Thursday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium. In a meeting between the No. 5 (Eastern) and No. 6 (Western New England) ranked teams in the NCAA Region II, Eastern (29-9) moved to within a win of its 34th season of 30 wins with its 15th win in 19 home contests. The victory was also the Warriors' first one-run decision after losses in their previous three one-run games. Eastern never trailed after bolting to a 3-0 lead after two innings but needed the relief pitching of Furino, senior righty Andre José and junior righty Nolan Lincoln to hold on and defeat Western New England (24-11-2) for the third time in the last four meetings in the series.
Day one of the 2023 American Southwest Conference Championships was in full swing on Thursday (May 4) at East Texas Baptist. The No. 3 seed UT Dallas scored a run every inning to run-rule No. 6 seed LeTourneau, 11-1. The Comets (23-18) advance to Friday to face No. 2 seed Concordia Texas at 11 a.m. In the second game of the day, No. 4 seed Hardin-Simmons got a walk-off single by Luke Kirkbride to lift his team over No. 5 seed Sul Ross State, 3-2. The Cowboys (20-21) advance to face host and top-seeded East Texas Baptist on Friday following the first game of the day. The finale was a quick turnaround for Sul Ross State (17-22), who exploded for five runs in the opening inning. The YellowJackets got their bats going with nine straight runs and would eventually get to a 17-9 victory in the first elimination game of the tournament. LeTourneau (20-22) advances to play the winner of game six in the tournament on Saturday at 2 p.m. in what will be another elimination game.
Jason O'Neill pitched seven scoreless innings and Dylan Maria drove in two runs and recorded a save as top-seeded Rowan defeated sixth-seeded Stockton, 3-1, in the opening round of the NJAC Baseball Championship, held at the Rowan Baseball Field. The double-elimination tournament moves to Kean on the weekend with the Profs (29-11) facing either Montclair State or William Paterson at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. O'Neill (7-1) kept the Ospreys off the board through 7.1 innings, while striking out four and stranding six base runners. With Stockton threatening with runners on first and second in the seventh, O'Neill got the final two outs with a pop up and fly out to right field. In the only other game played, NJAC No. 5 seeded TCNJ upset NJAC No. 2 seeded Kean on Thursday with an impressive 7-4 win in the opening round of the NJAC Tournament. Freshman John DiCostanzo did a great job keeping the Lions in the game in his six innings on the mound. In his outing, he allowed just three hits with three strikeouts and three walks. He also allowed three runs, but all of those were unearned.
York College used a five run ninth inning to steal a 7-5 win at Messiah University in the opening round of the MAC Commonwealth tournament on Thursday in Grantham, PA. York advances to face top seeded Lebanon Valley College in the tournament semifinals. The Spartans tied the game in the top of the ninth as Lucas Predergast continued his blistering hot day with a solo home run to right, knotting the score at three. Singles from Trevena, Elzinga and Michael Tinneny gave York a 4-3 lead. They weren't done as Robby Elzinga would eventually score on a wild pitch for a 5-3 Spartan lead. After a double play with the bases loaded took a little air of the Spartan uprising, Luke Moser came up with the biggest hit of his young career with a two-run single to center to increase the lead to 7-3. The Falcons made things interesting in the ninth with two runs on three hits but closer AJ Vincenzi came out of the pen to nail down the final out to earn his fourth save of the year. In the other MAC confrence, Stevens defeated Wilkes 6-5 to advance to play top seeded Arcadia.
The first day of the Southern Athletic Association championship featured a pair of convincing victories as Birmingham-Southern and Barry both advanced in the winners bracket. Berry scored two runs in the top of the first inning and never looked back, blanking Centre 10-0 in seven innings. Vikings hurler Patrick O’Rourke threw a gem, allowing just two hits with five strikeouts in a complete game. He retired the last 17 batters in order. Zachary Hardee went 3-for-4 with two runs scored to lead the Berry bats. Nick Brunswick had two hits and drove in three runs. Joey White scattered five hits and fanned seven, leading BSC to an 11-1 win over Millsaps. Jackson Webster took care of the offense, going 2-for-3 with three RBI on a solo homer and two-run double. Ian Hancock also went deep and Luke DePiero added two hits. Chris Hart had an RBI for Millsaps as the Majors were held to five hits in the afternoon.
The Lasell Lasers fell to the Anna Maria AMCATS on Thursday by a final score of 4-1. Two of the best pitchers in the GNAC faced off in Anthony Pingeton and Matthew Fletcher, and runs were hard to come by. Anna Maria would retake the lead, as an RBI double in the fourth gave them a 2-1 lead. Pingeton would then take over, retiring 12 of the next 14 batters. The AMCATS would extend their lead with a two run homer in the ninth before closing things out to take the 4-1 win. The Lasers relied on their offense all season, but were unable to get anything going against the stellar AMCATS pitching. Elms College came up short in the second round of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference to the Johnson & Wales Wildcats, final score 2-0.
Sixth-seeded Maryville pulled off a huge upset to start Day Two of the 2023 Collegiate Conference of the South Championship as the Scots defeated top-seeded LaGrange 7-3 to headline the action Thursday at LaGrange. Maryville carried their momentum from their win last night over to today as the Scots never trailed in their upset win over the top seed. That game was followed up by a 2-1 win by the No. 2 seed Belhaven over the No. 5 seed Covenant. Belhaven's Brett Sanchez, who was named the CCS Pitcher of the Year earlier in the day, threw a complete game and struck out eight in the win. Sanchez only allowed four hits in helping the Blazers post a key day two win. In the third and final game of the day at LaGrange, fourth-seeded Piedmont knocked off third-seeded Huntingdon behind an outstanding effort by starting pitcher Zeke Swartz. The sophomore carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning and the Lions offense did plenty scoring six runs on 11 hits in the win.
No. 2 seed Franklin & Marshall (25-15, 12-6 CC) came out on top of a back-and-forth battle against No. 3 Dickinson (22-17-1, 10-8 CC), 8-7, in Thursday afternoon's Centennial Conference Tournament game at Caplan Field. Tied at 7-all in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Diplomats loaded the bases with to bring Evan Varga to the plate with no outs. Varga laced a base hit into the left center field gap - scoring Spencer Berson and securing the walk-off win over the Red Devils. Top-ranked Johns Hopkins received a great start from senior pitcher Kieren Collins who tossed seven scoreless innings to help guide the Blue Jays to 5-2 win in the opening round of the Centennial Conference tournament.
No. 12 ranked Marietta swept its final Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader of the season from Capital Thursday evening at Pioneer Park. The Etta Express cruised to a 15-4 game one win in seven innings and then took game two by the score of 9-4. Marietta College improves to 30-9 overall and finishes with a 14-4 OAC record. Capital ends its season with a 6-30 overall record and 0-18 mark in conference games. Alex Richter had hits in each of the first three innings of game as the Pioneers jumped out to an early 14-0 lead and cuised to a game one win. Game two was a pitcher's duel through the first five innings. Comet starter Kyle Bowles allowed just one run, while Pioneer starter Kail Hill didn't allow a hit through seven innings. The game remained 1-0 until the bottom of the sixth inning when the Pioneers struck for five runs and the result was never in doubt.
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| Hiram continued to pile up the production in the late innings, scoring 2 runs in the ninth inning of a 9-7 win over Chatham on Thursday night at West Field. Chaisson Marrs and Michael Corsillo lifted a pair of sacrifice flies to the opposite field to set up Jacob Kocuba for his 2nd save of the season. The first seven hitters in the Terriers lineup all recorded at least 1 RBI, with Connor Bansek leading the way with 2 hits and 3 RBI. Hiram athletics photo By kasey Samuel Adams |
With the regular season winding down, Illinois Wesleyan polished off their non-conference slate, Thursday by squaring off with Blackburn College. After back-and-forth action in the first half of the contest, IWU welcomed seven runs between the seventh and eighth innings to secure the 11-4 victory. With the win, the Green and White's record upped to 16-20, while the Beavers ended their campaign with a clip of 7-30. The Titan's two out theme continued in the bottom of the seventh and the Green and White took the 7-4 lead. Illinois Wesleyan plated four runs in the bottom of the eighth and the bullpen shut the door to preserve the 11-4 victory. The Titans outhit the Beavers by a final tally of 13-5.
Senior Nick Notari wrapped up his Marywood career by leading the Pacers to a 10-1 win over Clarks Summit on Thursday in the non-conference season. The Pacers finish their season with a 15-23 record overall. Notari went 7 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run. Notari finished with three strikeouts and yielded six hits. Adam Ginsberg drove in four RBIs. He went 2 for 4 with a run, walk, and stolen base. Christian Michak went 2 for 4 with two runs and an RBI. Michak swiped one base to finish the season with a school record 30 stolen bases. Vinny D'Auria wrapped up his career with a 1 for 4 effort with two RBIs, a run and a stolen base. D'Auria finishes his career with 115 hits, 62 RBIs, and 33 stolen bases. Clarks Summit's Nick Tutton was 2 for 3 with an RBI and a walk. The Defenders' shortstop Tanner Smith played masterful defense with 11 assists.
Hitting the crunch time of the season, the Concordia Chicago Cougars took two crucial wins, 23-0 and 11-10, over the Marian Sabres after putting up a combined 34-runs on the day. Four Cougars homered in game one as Tyler Dorsch, Garry Maynard, Brandon Mahler, and Tyler Krater each sent a ball long over the fence for a combined seven RBIs. Krater led the offense going two-for-four at the plate capitalized by a momentum shifting grand slam in the seventh inning. Looking to secure a game two win, the Sabres went to work in the bottom of the ninth and tied things up to send the game to extra innings. Needing to put some runs up, the Cougars jumped ahead 11-10 in the top of the tenth off a double to centerfield that would move Maynard three bases and diving into home plate. As Kyle Ston took to the mound for the final inning, the freshman secured the save after retiring four batters to keep the Sabres scoreless in the inning and secure the 11-10 win.
UW-Eau Claire split a doubleheader with St. Mary's (Minn.) on Thursday at Bollinger Fields. The Blugolds won the first game 5-4 in extra innings before dropping the second 8-7 in extras. The Blugolds won the first game in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the 10th inning. Drew Salyers drew a bases-loaded walk to push in the winning run and give the Blugolds the victory. A late comeback from the Blugolds forced extra innings in game two, which was originally set to be a seven-inning game. UW-Eau Claire trailed 7-4 entering the bottom of the seventh, but Buysse and Dustan Green hit back-to-back homers to tie the game and force an eighth inning. Buysse hit a two-run blast to right field and Green followed with a solo shot to left. St. Mary's scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Otterbein tuned up for what could be a very important final weekend of the regular season with a non-conference doubleheader at Washington and Jefferson, splitting with the defending Presidents Athletic Conference champ after a pair of seven-inning showdowns. The Cardinals overcame a rough start in the opener to win 17-8, before coming up on the low side of a narrow 9-8 decision in the rematch. The Cardinals trailed by a touchdown after two innings as the Red and Black plated six in the first, and then another shortly thereafter. Otterbein's potent bats finally kicked in during a blitzing top of the fourth that saw eight runs scoot across. Hard-throwing Noah Gruver entered from the bullpen with Otterbein leading 8-7 and tossed two scoreless innings, allowing his offense to extend the lead with multiple runs in each of the net three frame. The Cards trailed 9-3 in game two on but never quit, making things very interesting down the stretch by roaring back with five runs in the sixth. A balk started the scoring sequence before Carter and Sprowls smoked 2-RBI hits that brought Otterbein to within 9-8 but W&J closed the game for a split.