Because of the harsh winter that has postponed several games, the Elizabethtown College men’s baseball team had a busy week. The Blue Jays have played eight games in the past week, going 2-4 in that stretch.
Last Thursday, the Blue Jays faced the Arcadia University Knights in Philadelphia. After four innings, the Blue Jays held the game tied at one, allowing only a solo home run in the second inning. In the top of the fifth, however, the Knights’ bats came alive.
The Blue Jays gave up two unearned runs in the fifth. Etown tied the game up in the bottom of the inning, but the Blue Jays could not keep the Knights contained. In the last four innings, Arcadia put nine more runs on the board and won the game 12-3.
The next day, the team headed to Stevenson, Md. to take on the Stevenson University Mustangs.
In the first three innings, the Blue Jays gave up five runs and were unable to mount the kind of comeback that was needed to knock off the Mustangs.
With the score at 7-0, the Jays scored three runs in the top of the eighth. Etown had one last chance to get four runs in the ninth, but could manage only one, falling to Stevenson by a score of 7-4.
On Saturday, the Blue Jays faced Stevenson again. This time, they played a doubleheader at home. In the first game, the Mustangs got out to 2-0 lead in the fourth, but the Jays tied the game up in the very next inning.
The game remained tied through the seventh inning, which is the last inning of regulation for doubleheader games. The game went into extra innings. In the eighth, the Mustangs scored two runs.
Etown was unable to respond in the bottom half of the inning, as Stevenson took another win from the Blue Jays.
Game two of Saturday’s doubleheader started off a lot like Etown’s previous two games.
Stevenson started off the scoring and had a 3-0 lead at the middle of the fourth inning. The Blue Jays’ bats came alive in the bottom of the fourth, however. First-year catcher Frank Ragozzino hit a two-run single, which pulled the Jays within one run through four innings.
The bottom of the fifth saw an outpouring of production for Etown. Senior Kyle Gable and junior Tyler Weary got the inning started with a single and a double, respectively. Junior Luke Gatti walked to load up the bases, and Sean Jones got an RBI walk.
With one out and the bases loaded, first-year Kyle Fackler walked for an RBI, and sophomore Ryan Shirk was hit by a pitch for another Jays’ run. Ragozzino then hit another single, again scoring two runs for the Jays.
Etown scored seven runs in the fifth inning and held onto the lead for a 9-3 home win. Ragozzino finished the game, batting 2-4 with four RBIs and one run scored.
Sunday meant another home doubleheader for the Blue Jays against Arcadia. In the first game, Arcadia scored a run in the first inning. Fackler hit a two-run double in the bottom of the fourth to give the Jays a one-run lead, but the Knights responded in the bottom of the fourth with three runs of their own.
Arcadia added one more run in the bottom of the fifth. Etown fought to get back to even score, but fell just one run short, losing a second game to the Knights by a score of 5-4.
The second game of the doubleheader went better for the Blue Jays. Sophomore outfielder Aaron Rahn singled in the first with two outs to bring home Gable for Etown’s first run of the game.
The Jays added more runs in the top of the second, but they gave up two runs to the Knights in the bottom of the inning. The score after two innings of play was 3-2 with the Blue Jays in the lead.
Etown put one run on the box score in the fourth and six innings. In the top of the seventh, Rahn hit a solo home run, his first of the season, to extend the Jays’ lead to four.
The Knights managed to snag a run in the bottom of the eighth, but Etown closed them out for its eighth win of the season and second of the conference.
When the weekend concluded, the Blue Jays record was 8-8 overall, with a 2-4 record in Commonwealth Conference play.
Etown will look to move their record to over .500 when they host Albright College on Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Kevin Scott Boyd Stadium.