Giants Improve to 20-5 With Sweep of Pacers

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Scranton, Pa. – Keystone College swept a Colonial States Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader at Marywood University, outscoring the Pacers 16-3 in the two seven-inning games.  The Giants improve to 20-5 overall on the season including a 7-2 mark in conference play while the Pacers fall to 8-14 this spring and 1-8 in the CSAC.    
 
Game 1 
 
Marywood took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning of Saturday's opener on RBI singles by David Ortiz and Daniel Hull and the Pacers held the two-run lead until the top of the fifth inning when Tony Hunter II (Atlanta, GA/South Effingham) doubled to right to drive in Robbie Nardelli (Eynon, PA/Valley View), cutting the Giants' deficit in half.
 
Keystone seized control of the game the following inning by scoring six runs on seven hits to claim a 7-2 lead.  Louis Reyes (Port St. Lucie, FL/Treasure Coast) drove in Chris Triano (Greenwich, CT/Rye) with the tying run on a double to left center before Alex Herceg (Jackson, NJ/Jackson Memorial) put the Giants ahead 4-2 with a two-run single to center.  Hunter and Julian Lanfranco (Brooklyn, NY/Xaverian) followed with RBI base hits before Hunter scored the game's final run by stealing home.      
 
Keystone starting pitcher James Dunning (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) allowed two runs on six hits while striking out two batters in the first three innings before Jack Simons (Great Falls, VA/Bullis School) recorded a pair of outs with one K.  Jeffrey Ledesma (Yonkers, NY/Norman Thomas) was credited with the win after allowing just one hit and striking out four in 2.1 innings while Hector Vargas (Corona, NY/Forest Hills) recorded the final three outs of the game, all via the strikeout. 
 
Hunter went 3-3 with two RBIs while Nate Ross (Albuquerque, NM/La Cueva) added a pair of hits.  Nardelli scored a pair of runs for the Giants, who outhit Marywood by an 11-7 margin in the opener.
 
Marywood starter James Goetz suffered the loss after allowing five runs on eight hits to go along with four strikeouts in 5.2 innings before handing the ball off to Casey Reed who yielded a pair of runs on three hits in 1.1 innings.  Vince Rebar led the Pacers with a pair of hits in the game one loss.
 
Game 2
 
Marywood again took a lead in the home second of Saturday's second game as Michael Schlichtig hit an RBI single to give the hosts a 1-0 edge, but Keystone answered with five runs on four hits in the top of the fourth inning to take a 5-1 lead.  Ross hit a two-run home run down the left-field line before Brandon Eady (Bowie, MD/DeMatha Catholic) hit a three-run double to give the Giants the four-run advantage.
 
Nardelli belted a three-run home run down the left field line in the visitor's fifth to give Keystone an 8-1 lead before the Giants capped the scoring in the top of the seventh when Billy Nelson (Moscow, PA/North Pocono) scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Ross. 
 
Nelson picked up the win on the mound after allowing one run on five hits while striking out five batters in five innings of work.  Junior Bautista (Haina, Domincan Republic/Christiana) allowed one hit in a scoreless sixth inning before Jorge Peralta (Manhattan, NY/Indian Hills) recorded the final three outs in seventh inning via the K.
 
Lanfranco, Herceg, and Hunter had two hits apiece while Reyes extended his hitting streak to 26 games with a double in the sixth inning.  Eady, Ross, and Nardelli drove in three runs apiece in the game two victory for the Pacers.
 
Marywood starter Nick DeCandia suffered the loss after allowing five runs on eight hits to go along with four strikeouts in 3.2 innings for the Pacers, who were led by Rebar's three hits.
 
Up Next
 
Keystone returns to the diamond on Tuesday afternoon with a non-conference game against Rutgers-Camden starting at 3:30 p.m. at Christy Mathewson Field in La Plume.