La PLUME, Pa. – Trailing 1-0 entering the bottom of the sixth, the Keystone College baseball team plated three runs and added three more in the seventh to take a 6-1 game one victory over Cairn University in the CSAC Championship on Friday afternoon.
With the win, the Giants improve to 24-14 on the year and are one win away from the program's 11th-straight CSAC title. The Highlanders fall to 20-21 on the season.
Game two of the championship series will begin at 12 p.m. tomorrow (May 11).
The Highlanders jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first on a ground-rule double down the right field line. Following five scoreless innings, senior Dakota McFadden (Rocky Point, NC/Heide Trask) came through with the game-tying RBI double to left to plate senior Chris Panzarella (Hazle Township, Pa./Hazleton Area).
Later in the sixth, McFadden came around to score on a fielding error by Cairn's first baseman to give Keystone a 2-1 lead. Senior Ronald Medina (Bronx, NY/Dewitt Clinton) followed with a run-scoring double to left center to score senior Johann Paniagua (Bronx, NY/James Monroe Campus High School) as Keystone went ahead 3-1.
In the bottom of the seventh, McFadden blasted a three-run bomb to left to score Panzarella and senior Mohammed Hussein (Queens, NY/William C. Bryant) to give the Giants a 6-1 cushion.
Junior righty Jared Rowley (Dover, Del./Dover) earned the start and his third win of the spring as he tossed 7 2/3 innings, striking out 10 Highlanders. Rowley gave up just four hits while walking one, forced eight ground outs and six flyouts and threw 113 pitches.
Junior Ramon Disla (Bronx, N.Y./Alfred E. Smith) came on in relief and threw the final 1 1/3 frames, striking out two while walking one.
For the Highlanders, Albert Taylor threw six innings.