Alex Holbert vs. Drew 4/19/15
11
Winner Drew DREW 12-19, 10-8 Landmark
7
Elizabethtown ETWN-B 21-12, 11-7 Landmark
Winner
Drew DREW
12-19, 10-8 Landmark
11
Final
7
Elizabethtown ETWN-B
21-12, 11-7 Landmark
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Drew DREW 3 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 11 13 3
Elizabethtown ETWN-B 2 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 2 7 14 4

W: Dylan Baxter (1-2) L: Tomasko, Zack (2-3)

Game Recap: Baseball |

Blue Jays done in by big innings in 11-7 loss to Drew

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – Mike Miraglia couldn't leave town quick enough. Drew's catcher drove in four more runs Sunday afternoon and finished with nine for the series, sending the Blue Jays to an 11-7 defeat on Senior Day at Kevin Scott Boyd Stadium.

Miraglia hit. 583 (7-for-12) with a double, homer, nine runs batted in and 11 total bases in the three-game set. He was 2-for-4 with a double and four RBI in the rubber match, putting Drew a game up of Catholic and Susquehanna for the final Landmark Conference Championships spot, and dropping the Jays (21-12, 11-7 Landmark) into a second-place tie with Moravian with one weekend of league play remaining.

Elizabethtown fell into a 3-0 hole after the Rangers' first at-bats. Starting pitcher Zack Tomasko let three pitches get away from him, Anthony Feltre hit an RBI single and Miraglia capped the scoring with a two-out two-run single.

It didn't take long for E-town to respond, however. Tyler Weary hit a sacrifice fly and Colby Smith singled in Alex Holbert to pull within 3-2.

Tomasko settled in for the next two innings, retiring the side in order in the second and facing only four batters in the third.

Things came apart in the fourth when 12 Rangers (12-19, 10-8 Landmark) came to the plate in an eight-run inning. The inning got off to an inauspicious start for the hosts when Miraglia reached on a pair of errors by shortstop Ryan Shirk and went to third on a wild pitch. J.C. Rasic followed with an RBI double, Mike DiDonato hit an RBI triple and Jonathan Rodrigues singled before Tomasko was relieved by Nick Gulla.

Drew added four hits and five runs against Gulla before the inning was through. Miraglia and Rasic hit back-to-back doubles, with the former driving in two and the latter one. Tomasko was roughed up for eight runs (six earned) on seven hits in 3.1 innings. He struck out four. Gulla allowed three runs on four hits, though none of the runs were earned due to errors.

Now trailing 11-2, the nine-run deficit was just too much for the Blue Jays to overcome.

Kyle Fackler drove in Aaron Rahn in the bottom of the fourth, while Luke Gatti, one of six seniors honored before the game, hit a two-run single up the middle to cut Drew's lead to 11-5 in the sixth.

Elizabethtown threatened in the ninth when Rahn and Frank Canuso hit consecutive singles to lead off the inning. Fackler registered his second RBI single to make it 11-6 and Holbert was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.

Weary hammered a ball delivered by Drew's Matthew Hunter to deep center that assuredly would have cleared the bases, if not for an outstanding display of athleticism by center fielder Al Krause.

Krause got a good read on the ball off Weary's bat, sprinted back and slightly to his right before perfectly timing his dive for an over the shoulder catch that limited the damage against his team to a sacrifice fly.

The Blue Jays outhit Drew 14-13, but the Rangers did enough in support of winning pitcher Dylan Baxter. Baxter went six innings, giving up five runs (four earned), walking four and striking out eight. Ryan Fitzpatrick and Hunter combined for three innings of relief, each allowing a run.

Anthony Lippy and Taras Letnaunchyn provided stability out of the pen for the Jays, but it unfortunately came too late. Lippy struck out five and gave up one hit over three innings, while Letnaunchyn struck out one in two scoreless frames.

Fackler, Holbert and Gatti were all 3-for-5. Fackler and Gatti had two RBIs each, along with Weary.

DiDonato led Drew with three hits in five at-bats. The Rangers got at least one hit from all nine starters.

Elizabethtown, though still tied for second in the Landmark, fell behind Moravian, which holds the tiebreaker between the teams after sweeping their series back in March. The Blue Jays can punch their ticket to the Landmark Championships with one win over Susquehanna next weekend and a Catholic loss to Juniata. Two wins by E-town would clinch a spot no matter what Catholic does.

The Blue Jays are scheduled to make up their game at Franklin & Marshall from March 26, tomorrow at 4 p.m. F&M and E-town are also supposed to hold their Go4theGoal event to support the fight against childhood cancer Monday.
 
Print Friendly Version