CHESTERTOWN, Md. – Junior center fielder Bill Root clubbed a second-inning grand slam and senior left fielder Nick Gentry a fourth-inning, three-run shot and the No. 5 Salisbury University baseball held on for a 12-7 win over Washington (Md.) College at Athey Baseball Park on Wednesday.
Root's second blast of the season, to left field, highlighted a five-run inning, while Gentry's, to left-center field, provided the game-winning runs for Salisbury (28-6). Root was 1-for-4 with a walk, two runs scored and four RBIs, and Gentry finished 3-for-6 with three runs, three RBIs and his 21st stolen base of the year. Junior first baseman Quinn Griffith chipped in with a four-hit day, including a career-high three doubles.
Sophomore left-hander Dan Fein pitched six innings to earn the win on the mound, moving to 9-0. He allowed five runs (all earned) on 10 hits and two walks while striking out three. Fein, whose ERA rose to 1.17, moved into a tie for ninth all-time in wins in a season at Salisbury.
Bobby Sanzone's double to center field with one out in the second scored Danny Breen, who had doubled, to give the Sea Gulls a 1-0 lead. A Ken O'Neill (1-for-2 two runs, three walks) walk, the second of the frame, loaded the bases for Root. The Coatesville, Pa., native drove a Brian Lewis pitch over the wall for his fifth career home run and a 5-0 lead.
Washington (14-22), which downed third-ranked Johns Hopkins University, 7-3, on Tuesday, responded in the bottom of the third. The Shoremen notched three consecutive RBI base hits, capped by a two-run single to right center from Tyler Cotterell to pull within 5-4.
O'Neill and Root worked two-out walks off Lewis in the fourth to set the stage for Gentry's fifth bomb of the season and third in four games to make it an 8-4 game. Sanzone scored on a failed pickoff attempt in the fifth, and after Washington crept to within 9-7 in the bottom of the seventh Salisbury put the game away.
SU plated two in the top of the eighth and one in the ninth for the final margin. Sophomore Kyle Hamby picked up his second save of the season, tossing the final three innings after classmate Dylan Anderson relieved Fein to start the sixth but failed to retire a batter. Hamby allowed one hit and two walks with three strikeouts.
Lewis took the loss in 3 2/3 innings, falling to 0-1. He scattered five hits, five walks and eight earned runs as the first of five pitchers.
Five Washington players collected two hits apiece led by Cotterell, who was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs and a run scored.
Salisbury hosts the College of Staten Island in a 12:30 p.m., doubleheader on Saturday.