The Elizabethtown College baseball team picked up three wins and one loss last week, sweeping the United States Merchant Marine Academy, and falling to York. Junior pitcher Dylan Manning started Thursday, his fourth of the season. He allowed six hits, three runs and walked three.
The Spartans took the lead in the bottom of the second on a single to center field, with an error committed by the center fielder. The Jays would respond immediately in the top of the third, on a Luke Gatti RBI single to left field. However,York capitalized in the bottom of the third on an RBI single to left field. It was uneventful at-bat for the Jays in the top of the fourth. In the bottom of the inning, the Spartans improved on their lead on an infield sac fly. The game remained scoreless for the next 4 innings until an RBI single gave the Spartans a 4-1 lead. All tolled, the Jays left 10 men stranded on base, and looked to improve on their RBI’s going into the weekend.
Senior pitcher Kris Davis picked up the win in Etown’s first game against Merchant Marine, moving him to 5-0. He recorded three hits, three earned runs, and seven K’s in seven innings pitched. “We played very well in all three facets of the game: hitting, pitching and defense,” Davis said. “In the last four games we’ve had 42 runs and 56 hits.” The Jays went in front in the top of the first when senior outfielder Alex Holbert moved sophomore second baseman Kyle Fackler along on a sacrifice bunt. Merchant Marine first baseman Bryson Campbell errored on his throw to first base, and Fackler was able to head home with the first run of the afternoon. After that, the bats got busy, and Etown put up six more for good measure.
Etown put up a staggering 14 runs to Merchant Marine’s four in the second game. “I think our hitting really showed in our series this weekend,” said first-year pitcher Anthony Lippy. “I also thought our pitching was successful in pounding the zone and making them hit the ball.” After putting up two runs early, the Jays carried that momentum, and scored four more over the next few innings. They made it 6-4 in the sixth, and never looked back, tacking on eighth more. Sophomore pitcher Kevin Elwell got the start, and improved his record to 3-3. He recorded eight hits, four earned runs, and two K’s in five innings.
Etown notched a 20-5 victory, wherein ten different Blue Jays recorded runs. Stranding men on base seems to be a thing of the past with production like this and, according to Davis, their coach could not be happier about it. “Coach has been happy with our performance of late, but he continues to push us to strive for excellence. Even though we have been winning , we still need to keep improving as a team,” Davis said. Junior pitcher Zack Tomasko recorded his second win of the season, improving his record to 2-2. He allowed seven hits, five earned runs, and struck out three in five innings.
Three convincing wins surely have this team looking forward with excitement to the upcoming playoffs, but Davis urges his teammates to carry themselves with composure. “Right now, we feel really good as a ball club, but we need to maintain our focus. Baseball is a humbling game and if you think too far ahead or get too high on yourself you will be brought down to earth. We need to keep maintaining our team mantra of ‘win the day.’ If we come everyday ready to learn and ready to improve individually and as a team, we will reach our goals.”
