ELIZABETHTHOWN COLLEGE BASEBALL
Thursday, March 13, 2008

Ninth-Inning Single Boosts Etown Over York, 4-3

Click here for the box score

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Sophomore Rodney Francis (Pottstown, PA/Owen J. Roberts) dribbled an RBI single down the third base line with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to lift Elizabethtown College to a 4-3 victory over York College in non-conference baseball action at Boyd Stadium on Thursday afternoon.

The Blue Jays (6-4 overall) used three infield singles to push home the winning run in the ninth after the Spartans (2-9 overall) had tied the score in the top of the inning.

Sophomore Ben Yeager (Pottstown, PA/Owen J. Roberts) opened the bottom of the ninth with an infield single for the Blue Jays and moved to second on a sacrifice. Junior Eric Luff (Lincoln University, PA/Avon Grove) followed with another infield single to put runners at first and third with one out.

After a strikeout and a pitching change, Francis cued a 1-0 pitch from Tim Frisch down the third base line and easily beat the throw as Yeager crossed with the winning run.

Senior Chris Minakowski (Roslyn, PA/Abington) allowed an unearned run in the ninth but earned the win for the Blue Jays, while Jake Hughes fell to 1-1 for the Spartans after allowing three runs on five hits in 1 2/3 innings of relief.

Elizabethtown scored the game's first run in the bottom of the second inning on an RBI groundout by sophomore Matt Vinagro (Fredericksburg, VA/Stafford), but York answered in the top of the third on a two-out RBI single by Ryan Craig.

York went ahead 2-1 in the top of the sixth on a two-out RBI single by Mike Connolly, and put a runner on third with nobody out in the seventh but were unable to add an insurance run.

Trailing 2-1 entering the eighth, the Blue Jays (6-4 overall) got a leadoff walk from Luff and a one-out double from Francis before junior Sam Heaps (Landenberg, PA/Avon Grove) came through with a single up the middle off Hughes to give Elizabethtown a 3-2 lead.

York, which had left runners at third base to end the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, tied the game in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Frisch.

Senior Brandon Watson (Philadelphia, PA/Central) finished 2-for-3 with a run scored while Francis went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI for Elizabethtown, which finished with a 9-7 edge in hits over York. Craig and Maxim each finished 2-for-4 with a run scored for the Spartans.

Junior Matt Kutz (New Cumberland, PA/Cedar Cliff) started for the Blue Jays and allowed one run on two hits in three innings of work. Heaps followed and allowed an unearned run on two hits in three innings of relief and sophomore Adam Hartzell (Spring City, PA/Owen J. Roberts) added two scoreless innings for Elizabethtown.

Jason Christenberry worked seven strong innings for the Spartans, allowing an unearned run on three hits while striking out four and walking three.

Elizabethtown Coll. 4, York College 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------
York College........ 001 001 001 - 3 7 1 (2-9)
Elizabethtown Coll.. 010 000 021 - 4 9 2 (6-4)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jason Christenberry, Jake Hughes (8), Tim Frisch (9) and Mike Santoro; Matt Kutz, Sam Heaps (4), Adam Hartzell (7), Chris Minakowski (9) and Tom Semanek. WP-Minakowski (1-0). LP-Hughes (1-1). SO-BB: Christenberry 4-3, Hughes 4-1, Frisch 0-0; Kutz 1-0, Heaps 3-1, Hartzell 2-0, Minakowski 1-0.