SALISBURY, Md. – Four players collected three hits each and four drove in at least two runs as the No. 5 Salisbury University baseball team defeated Stevenson University, 16-7, on Senior Day at the SU Baseball Field on Sunday.
The Sea Gulls improved to 30-7 on the season, marking the 12th time SU has reached the 30-win plateau in the 13-year tenure of Head Coach Doug Fleetwood.
Salisbury banged out 18 hits and used a seven-run fifth inning to put the game away.
The first three hitters in the SU lineup, sophomore Kyle Hayman, senior Nick Gentry and junior Quinn Griffith, were a combined 9-for-15 with nine runs scored and five driven in. Griffith led the group with a 3-for-4 day with his 14th double of the season, three runs scored and two driven in. junior Johnny Schiotis chipped in with a 3-for-6 effort out of the fifth spot in the order. Schiotis scored twice and drove in three runs.
Senior right-hander Andrew Levy improved to 9-0, joining teammate Dan Fein in a tie for 10th place on the SU list for single-season wins. Levy threw 5 2/3 innings, allowing four earned runs on 10 hits and two walks with four strikeouts.
Schiotis got Salisbury on the scoreboard with a two-run single to left field, scoring Evan Graci and Gentry with one out. Following a Ken O'Neill single, Myles Illian, who earned his first start as a Sea Gull at third base, hit into a fielder's choice to score Graci. O'Neill was forced out on the play, but shortstop Tom Goulian's throw to first missed the mark, allowing Schiotis to make it 4-0 after one inning.
Stevenson (24-16) cut the lead to 4-3 over the next two innings, but the Sea Gulls scored two more in the fourth for a 6-3 advantage. Consecutive RBI singles from Graci and Schiotis scored Hayman and Griffith prior to SU exploding in the fifth.
The Gulls sent 12 batters to plate, recording seven hits and seven runs off of reliever Ryan Kellough, to take a 13-3 lead. Hayman, Gentry and Griffith came up with back-to-back RBI base hits. Then, with the base loaded, O'Neill singled up the middle to plate Griffith and Illian hit into another run-scoring fielder's choice with Goulian again throwing the ball away, to allow the final run of the inning to come in.
Senior righty Danny Druzgala bounced back from a loss against the College of Staten Island on Saturday to toss 1 1/3 innings with one strikeout in relief of Levy. Freshmen Connor Shockley and Jeff Geary pitched the eighth and ninth, respectively, with Geary retiring the Mustangs in nine pitches.
Scott Merkel was 3-for-4 with a run scored and sacrifice fly to lead Stevenson. Trevor Fitzsimmons pitched the first four innings for the Mustangs, allowing six runs on eight hits and four walks to fall to 1-3.
The game was the final one at home for the five Salisbury seniors, Gentry, Graci, Levy, Druzgala, and Hank Adams, who pinch hit in the seventh, coaxing a walk and scoring, in his only at-bat.
Salisbury heads to Baltimore to face off with third-ranked Johns Hopkins University Monday at 3:30 p.m.