ELIZABETHTHOWN COLLEGE BASEBALL
Sunday, March 2, 2008

Elizabethtown Opens Florida Trip With Win, Loss

Box score vs. La Roche
Box score vs. St. Scholastica

FORT PIERCE, Fla. --- The Elizabethtown College baseball team opened its annual spring break trip with a win and a loss in action on Sunday at the Lawnwood Complex.

The Blue Jays began the day with a 17-8 win over La Roche College before falling 8-5 in evening action to the College of St. Scholastica.

Against La Roche, sophomore Ben Yeager (Pottstown, PA/Owen J. Roberts) went 3-for-4 with a three-run home run for the Blue Jays, who scored seven runs in the first innings and pounded out 14 hits and drew 13 walks from four Redhawk pitchers.

Elizabethtown tacked on four runs apiece in the second and third innings en route to a 17-0 lead after five innings. La Roche (0-1 overall) scored eight unearned runs in the top of the sixth, but was unable to dent the deficit any further.

Sophomore Rodney Francis (Pottstown, PA/Owen J. Roberts) finished 3-for-3 with four runs batted in for the Blue Jays, while sophomore Eric Luff (Lincoln University, PA/Avon Grove) and junior Adam Sheibley (Landisburg, PA/West Perry) drove in three runs apiece.

Junior Sam Heaps (Landenberg, PA/Avon Grove) allowed two hits over five scoreless innings while striking out seven to improve to 2-0 on the season for the Blue Jays, while Max Zingle took the loss after yielding 10 runs on six hits and six walks in 1 1/3 innings of work for the Redhawks.

Against St. Scholastica, the Blue Jays (3-1 overall) fell behind 4-0 after two innings, but rallied twice to within a run before the Saints (2-1 overall) put the game away with two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth.

Sophomore Matt Vinagro (Fredericksburg, VA/Stafford) went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs batted in for the Blue Jays, while Yeager finished 2-for-4 with a run and senior Jared Auman (Northumberland, PA/Shikellamy) went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

Junior Matt Kutz (New Cumberland, PA/Cedar Cliff) dropped to 1-1 on the season for the Blue Jays after yielding seven hits and four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings of work. Steve Gerten (1-0) took the win in relief for St. Scholastica after allowing one run and striking out five in 4 2/3 innings of relief.

Elizabethtown Coll. 17, La Roche College 8
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La Roche College.... 000 008 0 - 8 6 0 (0-1)
Elizabethtown Coll.. 744 200 x - 17 14 4 (3-0)
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Max Zingle, Kelbi Berg (2), Anthony Cirocco (4), Corey Lotis (6) and Nick Valadja, Chester Kirkwood (6); Sam Heaps, Ryan Barrett (6), Dan Lauletta (6) and Tom Semanek. WP-Heaps (2-0). LP-Zingle (0-1). SO-BB: Zingle 1-6, Berg 2-5, Cirocco 1-2, Lotis 1-0; Heaps 7-2, Barrett 2-2, Lauletta 3-0. HR-Ben Yeager (E).

Coll. of St. Scholastica 8, Elizabethtown Coll. 5
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Elizabethtown Coll.. 001 210 001 - 5 9 1 (3-1)
St. Scholastica..... 130 121 00x - 8 10 1 (2-1)
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Matt Kutz, Kurt Smith (5) and Jared Auman; Jake Gaub, Steve Gerten (5) and Mike Lewis. WP-Gerten (1-0). LP-Kutz (1-1). SO-BB: Kutz 3-3, Smith 0-2; Gaub 7-4, Gerten 5-1. HR-Sean Claugherty (SS).