HARRISBURG, Pa. —
Pat Mulligan homered for the first time in his career, and then did it again.
Steve Motika added a long ball as well, and the Elizabethtown College baseball team pounded out 18 hits in a 20-11 victory over Penn State Harrisburg Tuesday afternoon. The 20 runs were the most scored by a Blue Jays team since early 2009.
Mulligan left the yard in the fourth and did so again in the fifth. He was 2-for-2 with three RBIs before leaving the game with E-town (4-7) soundly ahead. The Blue Jays were able to build a 10-0 lead after three innings thanks to a four-run second and a six-run third. The visitors batted around in the third, drawing four walks and getting a double from
Anthony Heaps and Motika's first home run of the season.
The lead would continue to increase with the Jays scoring runs in innings 4-8 as well. The blue and gray was ahead 17-0 after its at-bats in the sixth, which included a two-run single from freshman
Vaclav Hasik.
Penn State Harrisburg did most of its damage late, scoring five runs in the eighth and five more in the ninth.
Matt Ruth kept the Nittany Lions in check for a better part of the afternoon. He tossed five innings of one-hit ball to pick up the victory. A sophomore from York, Ruth struck out four and walked one in his longest —and most productive—outing of the season thus far.
Though the 16 hits were a season-high for the Blue Jays, they did a nice job of spreading them around. Mulligan,
Andrew Gordon and
Jon Bacher were the only players to register multi-hit games, as each guy finished with two hits.
Ian Smith scored four runs and walked four times, while Bacher had a pair of RBIs and three runs scored.
Motika had three RBIs, all coming on his third inning home run, while Gordon, Hasik, Bacher and
Kyle Gable each had two RBIs apiece.
Justin Zitsch doubled and had three RBIs to lead the Lions. Joe McMenamin, Nick Knull and Dalton Trolinger all knocked in two runs late for PSU Harrisburg (1-14). Josh Kefauver took the loss for the home side by allowing 10 earned runs, six hits and seven walks in 2.2 innings.
With the cancellation of its Wednesday game at Gettysburg due to rain, Elizabethtown will now look ahead to conference play. The Jays open Commonwealth play with a Friday afternoon showdown against preseason favorite Widener at Kevin Scott Boyd Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
