Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 NEW CASTLE, Del. – Sophomore Fernando Garza's (Laredo, Texas/Alexander) RBI fielder's choice in the top of the 10th inning propelled the Philadelphia University baseball team to a 2-1 game one victory and a split of Saturday's Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) doubleheader against No. 24 Wilmington (Del.) on Wilson Field. The Wildcats took the nightcap 3-2.
Philadelphia is now 8-11 overall and 2-2 in CACC play. Wilmington—who is also ranked third in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association East Region Poll—is 11-3-1 overall, 1-1 against the conference.
GAME ONE
Senior first baseman Jordan Force (East Greenville, Pa./Upper Perkiomen) got the 10th inning off to a positive start with a double. After junior shortstop Hector Gonzalez (Laredo, Texas/United) was intentionally walked, junior designated hitter Ken McCormick (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury) singled to load the bases.
Garza, who was playing right field in the opening, took the first pitch he saw from Nick Marics to the right side of the infield to bring home Force and put the Rams in the lead.
The Rams loaded the bases again when senior center fielder Rick Reigner (Havertown, Pa./Monsignor Bonner) was given an intentional walk. The team couldn't add to the lead as senior catcher TJ Burgmann (Philadelphia, Pa./La Salle College High School) hit into a double play.
Sophomore closer Luke Floer (Brewster, N.Y./North Salem) had to pitch his way out of a one-out jam to lock down the victory and his third save of the year. With runners at first and third, Floer got pinch hitter Tyler Hawthorne to pop up to junior second baseman John Sczepanski (Lafayette Hill, Pa./La Salle College High School), and Chrstian Adorno to ground into the game-ending fielder's choice.
McCormick led the Philadelphia offense with two of the team's eight hits. Five players had one hit for Wilmington.
Sophomore reliever Abraham Almonte (Danbury, Conn./Danbury) threw a perfect 2.2 innings in relief of junior starter David Lerro () to earn the win (3-0). Almonte struck out one.
Lerro fanned seven batters while allowing one unearned run on four hits in 6.1 innings.
Marics was the losing pitcher (0-1).
Wilmington took a 1-0 lead with a fourth-inning double by Sam Goines to plate Josh Swirchak, who opened the inning by reaching on an error.
Sczepanski got the run back for Philadelphia in the sixth with a two-out, bases-loaded single to score Garza.
GAME TWO
In the second game, it was Wilmington who produced the late-inning heroics to get the win. With the game tied at two in the eighth, Goines delivered a two-out RBI single to bring Swirchak home from second for the eventual game-winning run.
Philadelphia jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Sczepanski double that plated McCormick in the top of the second. The Wildcats tied the score at one in the bottom half of the inning when Joe Marciano singled.
The teams traded runs again in the third to make it a 2-2 affair. The Rams got a sacrifice fly from McCormick, and the Wildcats' Josh Hampton knocked in the tying run on an error.
Jamie Tremi threw a scoreless eighth inning, including a strikeout, to get the win for Wilmington (3-0). Tyler Fries kept Philadelphia off the board in the ninth for his third save.
Junior reliever Nick Horner (Easton, Md./St. Michael's) took the loss as he gave up the run in the eight. Garza went the first seven innings, scattering just three hits.
Philadelphia outhit Wilmington, 6-4. Sczepanski had two hits in four at-bats for the Rams.
Philadelphia will head to Concordia (N.Y.) for a CACC twinbill on Tuesday, March 25 at 1:30 p.m.
