SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Home field advantage in baseball tends to be ever more crucial when a game comes down to the wire, both teams deadlocked on the scoreboard. The Elizabethtown College baseball team fell victim to such a scenario Tuesday afternoon at Susquehanna. After letting a lead slip from its grasp late in the game, Elizabethtown faltered in a bases loaded situation in the bottom of the ninth, allowing Susquehanna to score the walk-off run. The Crusaders defeated the Blue Jays 4-3 in Selinsgrove.
The Crusaders (11-9) capitalized on a bunt attempt and error to strike first. Alex Miskovsky dropped down a bunt for a single and an errant throw allowed Kyle Semmel to score from second base.
E-town (11-6) answered the next inning with
Dillon Tagle singling to left field to score
Tyler Weary to tie the game. The next two turns at bat were fortuitous once again for the Blue Jays. Third baseman
Vaclav Hasik's single to dead center field gave the Jays the lead in the fourth. The fifth inning added more of a buffer to the E-town lead when
Ryan Haggerty put a ball in play that SU third baseman Ethan Rieker threw away. The resulting error allowed Tagle to come around and score for a 3-0 E-town lead.
The Crusaders chipped away at the lead to knot things up in the sixth inning. Susquehanna strung together a pair of hits to complete the comeback.
The score remained unchanged until the bottom of the ninth. Susquehanna landed back-to-back infield hits to fill two bases. With just a single out up on the scoreboard and the pressure to carry the game into extra innings, Elizabethtown elected to intentionally walk Rieker to provide force out options at all bases in an attempt to prevent the winning run. The Blue Jays couldn't handle the final ball put into play, allowing the winning run to cross the plate in the evenly matched non-conference contest.
Brian Verdelli, starting at first base, acquired a trio of hits in the game to lead the Blue Jay hitters. Shortstop
Kyle Gable and Haggerty each put together two hits apiece, while Tagle and Hasik were credited with RBIs in the game.
Jake Hoffstein pitched seven innings in the tough road loss. Hoffstein allowed three runs on ten hits while striking out three.
Kristopher Davis came on in relief, but was tagged with the loss in the high-pressure final inning. Davis completed an inning and a third of work.
Brian Wendig pitched 8.1 innings for SU, but it was Matt Lottes who added the win to his record. Lottes retired the last two E-town hitters to position his team for the walk-off win.
Elizabethtown returns home Thursday afternoon for one game against Shenandoah at 3:30 p.m.
