Coming off two games which were postponed due to weather conditions, the Elizabethtown College baseball team played their first game in a week when taking on Stevenson University at home Friday. Senior Matt Ruth put on quite a performance as he pitched his first complete game of his career. Ruth allowed six hits through nine innings and also struck out four on the day. Sophomore Luke Gatti provided the only run of the game for the Blue Jays as he took the pitch from Mustang pitcher Alec Romanowski, driving in fellow sophomore Tyler Weary. Ruth took care of the rest as the Blue Jays held off the Mustangs 1-0 for their first conference win of the season.
The Blue Jays took their talents down to Owings Mills, Md. for a double header against the Mustangs. In the first game, The Blue Jays scored three runs in the first inning from Gatti, first-year Sean Jones and sophomore Ryan Haggerty. Stevenson came right back in the first inning with two runs of their own, but it would be all Blue Jays from there. In the second inning, senior Kyle Gable pushed in fellow senior Kevin Berkheiser off a sacrifice fly ball, a single from senior Dillion Tagle, Jones reaching base off a fielder’s choice, and a double from Haggerty to finalize the five run inning. The Blue Jays tacked on three more runs as they beat the Mustangs by the final score of 11-3.
The second game was a much closer affair than the first game; however, it didn’t look that way in the first inning. The Blue Jays came out swinging as they scored three runs in the first inning thanks to Tagle, Haggerty, and Berkheiser. Unlike the first game, the Mustangs responded with a four run fourth inning as Tom Goulian brought in two runs off a double, cutting the lead to one. The next batter, Heath Johnson, brought in another run off a single to tie the game at three. First-year Parke Martin made a costly error, allowing Johnson to score, giving the Mustangs the lead. The Blue Jays could not get their bats going as they fell to the Mustangs by the final score of 4-3.
Over the weekend, Arcadia University came to visit the Blue Jays in a doubleheader. There weren’t any runs scored through the first five innings. Then in the sixth inning, the Blue Jay bats came alive. A Tagle single bringing in Weary put the Blue Jays up on the scoreboard. From there, Jones hit a double, bringing in Gatti and Gable, increasing the lead to three. A Berkheiser single brought in first-year Dylan Manning and Tagle pushing the Blue Jay lead to five and into complete control of the game.
Then the Knights’ offense just exploded in the next inning with nine runs getting by the Blue Jays. Weary scored off a wild pitch in the bottom of the final inning, but it was not enough, as the Knights topped the Blue Jays 9-6.
The Knights took the momentum from the first game and it showed in the second game of the doubleheader as they scored five runs through the first two innings. The Blue Jays responded with some offense of their own thanks to a single from first-year Zack Tomasko, a double from senior Mike Stobbe and a Weary groundout bringing in Tomasko closed the gap between the Jays and the Knights to one.
The Knights scored four more runs over the next five innings to take the second game by the final score of 9-5.
Even with the record this season, Tagle said that this team still has the ability to make a late postseason run. “The veterans have shown a lot of confidence in the team and our abilities that once we start playing the type of baseball that we know we are capable of, we will have no problem pulling out of this rut and stringing together a winning streak.” Tagle said.