ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa — After opening conference play in a two-game affair Friday afternoon in Philadelphia, Elizabethtown returned to Kevin Scott Boyd Stadium Monday to finish the three-game series with Arcadia. The third game of the series had a surplus of action for a weekends worth of games. The nine-inning contest was chock-full of hits, runs and errors, but in the end Elizabethtown won its second Commonwealth Conference game of the season, and the series, 15-10.
The Blue Jays fired off the first shots of the high-scoring ballgame in the second inning.
Steve Motika launched the ball to dead center over the trailing center fielder's head for a two-base knock. Motika was 4-for-6 in the game and scored four times.
A wild pitch and a throw later Kevin Berkhesier sent a ball into right field that allowed Motika to make the short jog home for the first run of the game. The Jays added to the lead after a bit of patience in the box with Arcadia's Steven Sciortino finding himself in a jam on the mound. With the bases loaded, junior
Kyle Gable took the free pass to first to increase the E-town lead to 2-0.
Arcadia (7-12, 2-4 CC) added a run in the top of the third on a hit and an error. E-town (11-5, 2-1 CC) matched the output of its productive second inning of scoring with two more runs in the bottom of the third. Once again the Blue Jays found themselves in a prime position with the bases loaded and two outs on the board.
Freshman
Ryan Haggerty was served with a golden opportunity in his third at-bat of the season, and he came through in the clutch with a two-run single down the left field line. The hit was the first of his career in the Blue and Gray.
Everything that went right for the E-town defense in the early going started to slip from its control in the fifth. The Knights jumped on the miscues of the defense. A stroke of offense pushed the visitors to their first lead of the game, 5-4. Shortstop Marc Gottfried attempted to drop down a bunt to move two base runners into scoring position. Unfortunately the Jays committed two errors on one play to give Arcadia two unearned runs. Arcadia took the lead on Jay Zehring's RBI single to left field.
Any hole that the Blue Jays may have placed themselves in, they dug themselves right out of in their next at bats. Five hits, including two doubles, was just the outburst needed to retake command of the game. E-town took the lead back and then doubled it in an inning's worth of work, 10-5.
The home team added to its cushion heading into the final inning.
Tim Rosser, coming into the game defensively in the top of the 8th, stretched out a long drive off the center field wall for a triple to start off the bottom half of the frame.
Tyler Weary and Gable each worked the count for back-to-back walks. Catcher
Jon Bacher worked a bases loaded walk. A wild pitch brought in the 14th run of the game and
Dillon Tagle drove in his seventh RBI of the season on a sac fly to left field to take a 15-8 lead.
Todd Leister entered the game in the ninth inning to abbreviate Arcadia's attempt of one last comeback.
Pitchers on both teams got plenty of face time on the mound.
Rob Cressman earned his third win of the season after going just over five innings. Cressman gave up seven hits and seven runs due to the tough defensive fifth inning, but struck out four batters and walked just two. Only three of the runs charged to Cressman were earned.
Mark Minisce finished off the rest of the sixth inning for Cressman while
Joey Seremula worked two full frames.
Arcadia's Tyler Guentter got the loss amid the barrage of hits. Six different pitchers took a turn on the mound for the Knights. Starting pitcher Sciortino exited after three innings of work.
Three Jays racked up two hits. Bacher, Tagle and Berkheiser each collected a pair and combined for seven RBIs. The 14 hits is the highest output this season for the Blue Jays. Their previous high was 13 against Penn State Behrend early in the season.
Elizabethtown hits the road tomorrow afternoon for a non-conference game against Susquehanna at 3:30 p.m.
